4 December 2019
NSW Government must manage river water for all users
Premier Gladys Berejiklian should reaffirm her government’s commitment to the Murray-Darling Basin Plan in light of comments by Nationals ministers in her government that NSW may walk away.
“The National Party needs to stop playing politics with water and get on with delivering the Murray-Darling Basin Plan,” NCC Chief Executive Chris Gambian said.
“Changing water policy in the midst of a drought crisis is a recipe for failure. We must stick to the plan and NSW must honor its end of the bargain to make it work.
“The Murray-Darling Basin Plan is imperfect, but it is far better than anything else on offer.”
Nationals Deputy Premier John Barilaro and Water Minister Melinda Pavey have threatened to pull NSW out of the Plan if certain demands are not met, including excusing NSW from its obligation to contribute further to environmental flows.
The issue will come to a head at the Murray–Darling Basin Ministerial Council scheduled for December 16-17 in Queensland.
“It is a bit rich for the Nationals to say the plan is not working when Nationals ministers have been undermining it for years,” Mr Gambian said.
“The NSW Government has had seven years to prepare Water Resource Plans, as required under the Basin Plan, but has still not delivered.
“The Nationals blame the drought, but the drought has nothing to do with it. The Nationals have dragged their feet in implementing the Basin Plan at the behest of their irrigator mates.
“We’ve had four Water Ministers in NSW since the plan was gazetted in 2012, all of them Nationals and all of them representing the interests of the irrigation industry and not the broader NSW community.
“Their mismanagement of the portfolio has been to the detriment of the vast majority of water users: Aboriginal communities, the Darling River, floodplain graziers, recreational and commercial fishing, the tourism industry and the health of our rivers.
“The Nationals have continued to fiddle with rules in Water Sharing Plans to favour the irrigation industry over all other water users, including inland towns and cities.
“We are in this crisis because of poor management, not because of the Basin Plan.
“The NSW Government should put its shoulder to the wheel and get the job done rather than blaming others for its own shortcomings.”
BACKGROUND
Water Resource Plans set new rules on how much water can be taken from the system, ensuring the sustainable diversion limit is not exceeded over time. There are 19 Water Resource Plans for surface water and 19 Water Resource Plans for groundwater in the basin. https://www.mdba.gov.au/basin-plan-roll-out/water-resource-plans
Water Sharing Plans set the rules for how water is allocated and should provide security for the environment and water users for the next 10 years. All existing water sharing plans in inland NSW should have been reviewed to ensure consistency with the requirements of the Commonwealth’s Basin Plan by the end of 2019.
https://www.waternsw.com.au/about/legislation/water-sharing-plans
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Rivers and wetlands
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