Irrigators blast Albanese’s Murray Darling advertising campaign

The federal government has not provided details about where it sourced images of dead fish and trees in its Murray Darling advertising campaign.

Irrigation communities have accused the Albanese government of running a Save the Murray Darling Rivers campaign that makes misleading claims and appears to use fake images.

Federal Water Minister Tanya Plibersek is spearheading the campaign that says the basin is “under imminent threat”, “water’s being overused” and “we have to make sure there’s enough water, otherwise the rivers may run dry”.

A bleak image of dead fish and trees dominates the campaign’s 30-second television advertisement, which irrigators and digital experts argue appears to be fake.

Ms Plibersek’s departmental bureaucrats refused to answer questions on where the image was taken in the basin, simply stating it had nothing to say on the matter.

A snapshot from the Albanese government's Save the Murray Darling Basin Rivers television campaign advertisement, which warns "rivers may run dry if we don't act".

Irrigators say the campaign portrays the Albanese government as saviours of the Murray Darling, ignoring 30 years of work that has already recovered almost 3000 gigalitres of water for the environment.

The recent Productivity Commission report into the Basin Plan implementation showed almost $7 billion has already been spent to recover 2107 gigalitres, which comes on top of 875GL previously recovered under The Living Murray and Water for Rivers schemes.

Even the Murray-Darling Basin Authority’s own 2020 evaluation showed the “plan is having a significant and positive impact on the basin environment” and “most elements of the basin plan are now in place and are improving sustainable and adaptive water management”.

NSW Irrigators Council chief executive Claire Miller said: “One in three litres of irrigators’ water has already been redirected to the environment – that’s a huge amount”.

The MDBA’s data shows just 28 per cent of the 32,000GL of the Basin’s annual inflows are diverted by irrigators, industry and towns each year.

Irrigators see the advertising campaign as a bid to claim the basin is in crisis, as Ms Plibersek prepares to wade into water markets to strip another 450GL out of irrigation communities.

The government’s campaign includes a sponsored online search result, with the claim that “the Murray Darling Basin is under imminent climate threat …(and) immediate action is essential”.

The Albanese Government has paid Google to rank its campaign at the top of Murray Darling searches, with warnings the "Basin is under imminent climate threat".

The campaign states that “if we don’t act, it could threaten … our food supply”, a claim National Irrigators Council chair Jeremy Morton said was illogical, given Ms Plibersek wants to take another 450GL out irrigation.

“How does reducing water for food production secure it?” Mr Morton said.

On claims that “water’s being overused”, Mr Morton said the MDBA’s own take reports showed irrigators were using well below their use limits at about 8000GL to 9000GL, out of 32,000 of annual inflows.

Murray-Darling Basin – water use against limits.

The Weekly Times asked Ms Plibersek’s office if the campaign breached political advertising rules, how it could claim there was overuse of basin water and what evidence it had to back up the claim the “basin is under imminent climate threat”.

However, the questions were referred to Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water.

A DCCEEW spokeswoman said the campaign aimed “to create understanding of the threats the river system faces and what the basin plan will do to deliver positive outcomes for the environment and communities”.

But Federal Opposition water spokeswoman Perin Davey said “the spin is like we are back in the millennium drought”.

“It ignores all the hard work of the last decade, all the water recovery to date, the significant environmental outcomes that have been achieved,” she said.

“Some of the imagery is entirely misleading and begs the question of whether the visuals are even from locations within the MDB.”

“I note that the ad is running in Sydney and Melbourne – areas outside the basin. Is it a case of the minister using taxpayers’ funds to improve her image while riding roughshod over basin communities?”

Victorian Farmers Federation water council chair Andrew Leahy said the advertisement “ignores all the heavy lifting that farmers and rural communities have done over the last 30 years”.

“Victoria has returned over 1000GL, or two Sydney Harbours to the environment. (Yet) the Commonwealth continues to ignore the impacts this will have on food production,” he said.

Mr Leahy said the “basin plan reforms will make the next drought worse, not better when it comes to food production”.

“There will not be enough water in the next drought to ensure our farmers produce the cities’ milk, fruit and vegetables,” he said.

“We know over 40,000 acres (16,180ha) of fruit trees will die in the next drought as there isn’t enough water to go around.

“Dairy production has halved over the past 20 years from 3.2 billion litres to 1.6 billion across Northern Victoria, this decrease has been fuelled by the uncertainty created by the basin plan.”

TRANSCRIPT OF SAVE THE MURRAY DARLING RIVERS CAMPAIGN ADVERTISEMENT

The Murray-Darling rivers pump life through our nation.

To our farms, communities and environment.

But water’s being overused. And the next drought is only a matter of time.

We have to make sure there’s enough water, otherwise the rivers may run dry.

If we don’t act, it could threaten our iconic Aussie plants and animals, our food supply, and affect the drinking water of more than three million Australians.

Find out how the Australian government’s plan will restore the Murray-Darling rivers.

Authorised by the Australian Government, Canberra.