“Long overdue”: Flood plain harvesting regulations imminent

The NSW Water Minister will announce new flood plain harvesting regulations on Friday, two days after a report into the practice urged caution.

Flood plain harvesting in the northern Murray Darling Basin has been blamed for low flows to the downstream Darling River. Picture: Jenny Evans/Getty Images

The NSW government will gazette new flood plain harvesting regulations on Friday, two days after a report urged careful modelling was needed before the practice was licensed.

NSW Water Minister Melinda Pavey said the key message she took from a six month inquiry into flood plain harvesting – the practice of diverting billions of litres of rainwater into private dams - was “stop delaying and start licensing”.

“Issuing licences has been 20 years in the making, and is 10 years overdue,” she said.

“Implementing the policy now would reduce the practice by more than 25 per cent, or about 100 gigalitres in the northern Basin,” Ms Pavey said.

The final report from the NSW Upper House Inquiry into Flood plain Harvesting, released on Wednesday, found the practice has had a negative impact on river flows and health in the Murray Darling Basin.

It urged caution and careful modelling before licensing the practice, and listed 25 recommendations for how to minimise negative impacts on downstream communities and the environment.

The report recommended the NSW government conduct detailed modelling before deciding the volume of water that can be that can be diverted from flood plains into private storages.

NSW member for Murray Helen Dalton said gazetting new regulations two days after the report was released was “undemocratic”.

“There are 25 recommendations from this inquiry, and (Minister Pavey) should enact on those recommendations rather than doing a backdoor process of regulating on a Friday afternoon,” Mrs Dalton said.

Ms Pavey said she would be implementing some recommendations from the inquiry.

“To give the Inquiry and the community confidence, I will be submitting the models to the MDBA as the proper independent body to review our numbers.”

“Any changes they make will be made to the licences without compensation.”

The 186-page report recommended that the volume of water that can be diverted from flood plains in the Murray Darling Basin should be determined based on how low and cease-to-flow events will affect downstream communities, and how climate change will impact the reliability of flows.

Barrister Bret Walker SC gave evidence to the inquiry that flood plain harvesting was not illegal, but the volume of water taken must be kept within certain limits, known as Sustainable Diversion Limits.

He said these limits cannot be increased above a level that is environmentally sustainable.

Water consultant Maryanne Slattery, who gave evidence to the inquiry, said she hoped the government had taken the reports recommendations into account when drafting its new regulations.

“Everyone agrees (flood plain harvesting) needs to be regulated and legislated. The question is, what is the volume (of water that can be taken)? What is the limit?” she said.

Ms Slattery said there would be a “long legal process” before any flood plain harvesting licenses were issued, and NSW Environment Minister Matthew Kean would need to sign off on the volume of water diverted from rivers.
In the meantime, dams across the Northern Basin were full and irrigators would not need to divert more water for some months, she said.

“I don't understand the urgency”, she said.

NSW Irrigators Council chief executive Claire Miller said regulation of flood plain harvesting was “long overdue”, and urged NSW parliament to “get on with the job” of regulating it.

She said further modelling and assessments were not necessary.

“More than $56 million of Federal and State money has been spent on rigorous modelling, analysis and ground-truthing.

“It is absurd the committee is now recommending spending millions more of taxpayers’ money setting up new processes to duplicate this work and delay this reform for even longer,” she said.

The committee that handed down the report on Wednesday was split on its findings.

The findings were supported by Greens MP and committee chairman Cate Faehrmann and three Labor Party members.

The two National Party members of the committee, the Liberal party member and the Shooters, Fishers and Farmers party member, Mark Banasiak, all disagreed with findings in the report.

Mr Banasiak’s dissent to some findings in the report may prove important as the government proposes new regulations.

In the past Mr Banasiak has voted with Labor and the Greens to disallow the government’s regulations but his new position indicates he does not entirely agree with the Labor and Greens’ position.

His position also indicates a divergence from the views of other members of his party like Mrs Dalton.

The NSW government’s three attempts to regulate flood plain harvesting have so far been blocked in the NSW Upper House; the latest in May this year by members of the Greens, Labor, the Shooters, Fishers and Farmers Party and the Animal Justice Party.

Greens MP Justin Field, who led opposition to the regulations, said they would harm downstream communities.

“Before billions of dollars of flood plain harvesting licences are handed out, clear targets for downstream flows must be set in law to ensure that the other water licence holders, downstream communities and the environment get their fair share of these flows,” he said in May.