30th March 2023 

NCC welcomes court decision on water theft, calls for stronger sentencing in the future 

The Nature Conservation Council of NSW (NCC), the states peak body for climate and environment, has today welcomed the finding of criminal liability for Brewarrina irrigators Peter and Jane Harris.  

At a sentencing hearing on Tuesday the Land and Environment Court upheld the finding of criminally liable for stealing over two billion liters of water in 2016 .  

The perpetrators were fined $60,000 and ordered to pay around half a million dollars in costs incurred by WaterNSW in bringing the case.  

NCC Water Campaigner Melissa Gray welcomed the decision, which she noted will have implications for a number of cases currently awaiting trial.  

“What this case has done is shown the rogue operators that if you illegally steal water, you will be held accountable. There was a lot of concern that the burden of evidence would be too high, so this is great outcome in terms of making it clear to those rogue operators who think they can steal water that this will no longer be accepted in NSW.” 

“Most irrigators do want to do the right thing, but the outliers who have been prepared to steal water have done so at eyewatering scale. It has taken a mountain of work by locals, community groups and environmental organisations to bring these cases of large scale water theft to light.” 

Gray also expressed concern at the scale of the fine.  

“A $60,000 fine between both of the offenders is woefully inadequate when compared to the impact that the theft of that much water has on communities and the downstream environment.  

“Penalties for significant water should be large enough to be a deterrent, and include loss of water access license.” 

“The concern I have is that some irrigators will see this potential fine as just the cost of doing business, especially when the likely profits from outweigh these fines”.  

“It’s great to see Premier Chris Minns has already visited the far west and shows the people that improving the health of the Murray Darlin Basin is a priority of his government.  

After 12 years of neglect, it’s time to get serious about water theft” 

STATEMENT ENDS- 

Media contact –  

Clancy Barnard 

E: [email protected] 

29 March 2023

The Nature Conservation Council has applauded Premier Chris Minns’s decision to visit Menindee on his first day as Premier of New South Wales.

Premier Minns will travel to the far west of the state to see first hand the latest mass fish kill in the Lower Darling-Baaka River.

“After years of shameless political neglect, the Minns visit is finally a step in the right direction for the struggling Murray Darling Basin,” said NCC Chief Executive Jacqui Mumford.

“His ‘listening tour’ won't magically fix all the problems associated with reduced water flows and degraded water quality right across the Basin. But it does indicate that reviving the once mighty Murray Darling river system will be a priority for the new government.”

“Labor’s pledge to implement the Murray Darling Basin Plan in full will give the waterways a fighting chance to cope with the next drought - which we all know is on its way.

“Premier Minns will see first hand today that the entire network of rivers and waterways must be managed as a connected whole - that’s our only chance to rebuild native fish populations and reinstate a healthy aquatic system,” said Jacqui Mumford

Media Contact: Clancy Barnard

[email protected]

14 March 2023

With less than a fortnight to go until the state election, leading water experts, traditional owners, MPs and candidates will take part in this evening’s NSW Online Water Forum to discuss the future of the Murray Darling Basin Plan.

After years of political compromises and inaction, the Forum will demand that the next government of New South Wales commit to delivering the Basin Plan in full and on time.

Hosted by Nature Conservation Council NSW, join us online to hear from -

• Aunty Polly Cutmore Gamilaraay Traditional Owner
• Aunty Judith Duke Gamilaraay Elder
• Aunty Marlene Weribone Gamilaraay Elder
• Tony Windsor Former Independent Member for New England
• Professor Richard Kingsford Director of the Centre for Ecosystem Science UNSW
• Professor Stuart Khan School of Civil & Environmental Engineering UNSW
• Elizabeth Farrelly Independent candidate for the NSW Upper House
• Cate Faehrmann MLC NSW Greens MP and spokesperson for water
• Rose Jackson MLC NSW Labor Shadow Water Minister

What: NSW Online Water Forum
When: 6.30 - 8.00pm Tuesday 14 March 2023
Where: Online via Zoom

RSVP: to receive the zoom link, please go to www.nature.org.au/water_rsvp

This event will be streamed over hundreds of sovereign First Nations Countries of this Nation.
Voice - Treaty - Truth
Authorised by Jacqui Mumford, Level 1, 79 Myrtle Street, Chippendale, NSW, 2008

With the deadline of June 2024 fast approaching, environment groups encourage Minister Plibersek to stand up to NSW and Victoria by purchasing water as the only cost-effective, practical way to return water to rivers.

Ahead of a meeting of Murray-Darling Basin water ministers today, Environment Victoria, Conservation Council of South Australia, NSW Nature Conservation Council and Queensland Conservation Council are urging Tanya Plibersek to remain steadfast in delivering the Basin Plan’s water commitments by the current deadlines. 

Tyler Rotche, Environment Victoria’s Healthy Rivers campaigner, said:

“Until now, Victoria and NSW have joined the federal Nationals to block progress on delivering the Murray-Darling Basin Plan. 

“Instead of purchasing water, they’ve proposed dodgy alternatives that don’t work, and the river suffers as a result.

“We've known for a decade that the most reliable way to get water for rivers is purchasing it from irrigators who want to sell. The reason it's not happening is recalcitrance led by the Victorian government in lockstep with the Nationals.

“It’s time for the federal government to call out this farce and for Victoria and NSW to step up and cooperate. State water ministers just need to follow the Federal Minister's lead and get on with the job.”

Jacqui Mumford, CEO of NSW Nature Conservation Council, said:

“The NSW Nationals Water Minister wants to keep gaslighting and sidestepping the Government’s obligations under the Murray-Darling Basin Plan.

“He is recklessly pushing for even longer extensions of time for worthless projects that won’t return water to the river system.

“For rivers and wetlands to flourish, there is simply no substitute for water. The most effective way to boost water flows is through voluntary open tender water purchases.

“Basin rivers cannot afford any more delays to water recovery – the next drought is getting closer every day.

“Voters will punish the Perrottet Government at the coming election if it continues to stand in the way of a healthy and sustainable Murray-Darling Basin.”

Craig Wilkins, CE of the Conservation Council SA, said: 

“Friday’s meeting is critical for ensuring water essential for the river’s health is delivered on time as promised.

“For years, upstream states have twisted and turned and done everything possible to delay water return. This game playing must be called out and stopped.

“We know the cheapest, simplest and most direct way to deliver water essential for a healthy river is through voluntary water purchases. 

“We urge all Water Ministers to work together to ensure water purchases are on the table.”

Queensland Conservation Council Water Policy Officer Nigel Parratt said:

“With the deadline for the Basin Plan to be implemented rapidly approaching, it’s essential that the Australian and Basin State Governments work together to meet the shortfall of water that must be recovered for the environment.

“Any delays in fully delivering the Basin Plan will be an absolute disaster for rivers, wetlands and communities across the Murray-Darling Basin.”

Media Release  

February 14, 2023 

The Murray Darling Basin Authority has released a six-monthly report card on the progress of the Murray Darling Basin Plan, highlighting yet again that when it comes to the Basin Plan, NSW continues to have the hand brake on.  

The law requires all Water Resource Plans to have been approved by July 2019, yet NSW have only today resubmitted the critical documents. It is yet to be seen if these overdue NSW Water Resource Plans are sound enough to be accredited. 

Nature Conservation Council (NCC) Chief Executive Officer Jacqui Mumford says NSW had since 2012 to get twenty Water Resource Plans written by the 2019 deadline, but has dragged its feet while still taking the lion’s share of water from the Basin. 

“We’ve seen successive NSW Coalition Water Ministers duck and weave, avoiding their responsibilities to the rivers of the Murray Darling Basin, and are now almost four years late with their homework," said Ms Mumford.  

“For almost four years, there has been no way for the Commonwealth to determine if water extraction in NSW is over the legal limits.  

“NSW has the biggest contribution to make to the implementation of the Murray Darling Basin Plan, because we’ve been the biggest water users. The enormous wealth created for a privileged few by excessive water take has come at huge cost to First Nations communities and the environment.  

“The balance between industry and the environment when it comes to water sharing has been heavily skewed to favor industry for over a hundred years. Clawing back some water for the health of the rivers under the Basin Plan still falls a long way short of that elusive concept of balance.” said Ms Mumford. 

NCC is extremely concerned that NSW is actively working against the principles of the Basin Plan by issuing an environmentally unsustainable volume of floodplain harvesting entitlements.  

“NSW is driving water management backwards – instead of working with the Commonwealth and other states to return water to inland rivers, it’s handing out billions of litres of brand-new water entitlements to privileged floodplain harvesting irrigation corporations” said Ms Mumford.  

Media Release  

3 February 2023 

The controversial regulation to legalise the diversion of billions of litres of water from NSW’s inland rivers with floodplain harvesting levees has been gazetted today. These are essentially the same regulations that have been previously disallowed by the Upper House a historic four times.  

Thousands of kilometers of levee banks, or water barricades, choke the floodplains of NSW Murray-Darling Basin, diverting environmentally critical flood waters and rainfall runoff into private dams.  

Nature Conservation Council (NCC) Chief Executive Officer Jacqui Mumford says these levees starve rivers and wetlands of the critically important medium sized floods that keep the system going in between the big flood years.  

“It’s clear that the Perrottet Government is under the spell of big corporate irrigators. Why else would it ignore the fact that this disastrous regulation has been disallowed in the Upper House more than any other piece of legislation? 

“Licencing such huge volumes of floodplain harvesting water, and legislating obscenely generous rules is locking in the rapid downward spiral of the iconic Darling-Baaka River and our internationally recognised wetlands. These rules allow accounts to accrue to 500% of the licence volumes. The approach is completely unsustainable." Ms Mumford said. 

NCC supports the licencing and regulation of floodplain harvesting, however the volumes and rules proposed by the current Liberal/National Coalition are not aligned with the laws of the state. 

Ms Mumford said “The Government’s own Environment and Heritage Department has said that the proposed in-catchment targets are probably too low to protect key environmental assets in extreme dry periods, and likely do not support the water management principles of the Water Management Act 2000. 

“The environmental, cultural, social and economic future of inland NSW depends completely on the health of our rivers and wetlands. Licencing flood waters at these volumes won't allow river ecosystems to survive. They also ignore a very clear message provided to the Perrottet Coalition Government a record four times already; the community expects more than a death sentence for the rivers.  

“The Coalition is ignoring the repeated decisions of the Upper House, disregarding the democratic process. The Perrottet Government has just doomed the inland rivers. It's extremely disappointing.”  

Contact Mel Gray: 0431 471 310   

Appalling water management is to blame for the complete eradication of the iconic Murray Cod in stretches of the Darling-Baaka River in New South Wales. 

The Commonwealth Environmental Water Office Monitoring, Evaluation and Research program’s 2022 survey found not one single Murray Cod between Bourke and Louth. 

Nature Conservation Council Chief Executive Officer Jacqui Mumford says the native fish is being lost because too much water is being taken from the Murray Darling Basin. 

“While it's great to see inland rivers and wetlands full of water now, the floods are not enough to combat terrible water management decisions that have led to this disaster. 

“The Coalition Government in NSW has enacted some shocking pieces of water management legislation. Recent droughts are ignored when irrigation allocations are worked out. The gradual stroll-out of compulsory irrigation extraction meters is so overdue that it's embarrassing. 

“It's no wonder that community outrage has led to the Upper House disallowing disgraceful floodplain harvesting regulations a record 4 times - the Perrottet Government is hellbent on giving away too much water and letting our incredible fish and wildlife vanish,” said Ms Mumford. 

Before the development of inland rivers with thousands of weirs, huge public dams and industrial scale corporate irrigation, the Darling-Baaka River teemed with an amazing array of aquatic life. The territorial Murray Cod could grow to 1.8 metres in length and weigh over 10 kilograms. 

Ms Mumford says the fate of the Murray Cod is an alarming taste of what's to come for the Basin unless more water is bought back to stay in rivers. 

“The NSW Government can try all it likes to convince us that the Darling-Baaka used to regularly dry up like it did in 2019, but the disappearance of an entire species doesn't lie. The collapse of the Darling-Baaka is happening before our eyes as a result of the politics of greed.” 

Contact: Mel Gray 0431 471 310 

25 October 2022

Water Management Killing the Darling-Baaka

New research published by the journal Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A confirms that it is the over extraction and mismanagement of water that is causing most of the damage to the Darling-Baaka River, not climate change.[1]

NSW Nature Conservation Council calls for the Federal Water Minister to stand firm on the timelines for water recovery in the Basin Plan, and restore the voluntary, open tender water buy back process.

Quotes attributable to Jacqui Mumford, CEO of NSW Nature Conservation Council:

“Report after inquiry after scandal has proven what river communities know - that too much water is taken from the Darling-Baaka and its tributaries.”

“Only real water can restore the wetlands and aquifers of the Basin, that is the only defense the rivers have against the worsening droughts we know are coming.”

“The horror of the Menindee fish kills in 2019 shocked the world. Australia has the laws to protect rivers from these catastrophic events, we just need strong politicians to implement the laws as they were intended.”

“There is a lot of work to do in NSW before the public can have any trust in water management, where reports of large-scale water theft continue to surface.”

“The floodplain harvesting regulations proposed by the NSW government are so unacceptable to the public that they have been disallowed in the Upper House a record four times.”

“While its clear climate change is here, and droughts and floods will continue to become more extreme, it is critical that less water be taken from the rivers so they, and the people who rely on them, have a chance.”

[1] https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rsta.2021.0296

In response to today’s Murray Darling Basin Ministerial Council (MINCO) meeting hosted by the Minister for the Environment and Water Tanya Plibersek – Environment Victoria, NSW Conservation Council and Conservation Council SA responded:  

Jono La Nauze, CEO of Environment Victoria, said: 

“We are encouraged that Minister Plibersek has reaffirmed the Commonwealth’s commitment to recovering the 450 GL but it is concerning that she has left the door open to further delays. Taking longer to recover environmental water increases the risk of mass fish kills and toxic algal blooms. 

“Victoria and NSW never intended to give the Murray-Darling the water it needs so they cooked up the world’s first water offset program then proceeded to sit on their hands. It appears to be little more than a delay tactic 

“It is the environment that bears the cost of delayed water recovery. We may be in El Nina now but the next drought is just around the corner. If we haven’t recovered enough water by then, the outcomes could be catastrophic for our rivers and native fish populations.” 

We further welcome the commitment to working more closely with Indigenous communities to deliver meaningful First Nations water rights and the renewed commitment to the Aboriginal Water Entitlements Program.“ 

Jacqui Mumford, CEO of Nature Conservation Council of NSW, said: 

“We are grateful to have a new Federal Minister who is committed to delivering the Murray Darling Basin Plan in full. We encourage her to stick to the Plan’s deadlines. 

“If NSW hadn’t delivered the goods after a decade, they were never going to. 

“It’s time to drop the fanciful engineering projects that were designed to fail, and buy back actual water for the rivers. 

“Too much time has already been wasted. The next drought is getting closer every day, and only real water will help rivers and wetlands survive. 

“We all need the rivers and wetlands of the Basin to be healthy, including the irrigation industry.” 

Craig Wilkins, Chief Executive, Conservation Council of SA, said: 

“We are coming to the pointy end of the Murray Darling Basin Plan, and there is a huge amount left to be done. 

“South Australians are genuinely concerned the bottom end of the River will again be dudded by delays and a lack of commitment by all Basin states to the 2024 deadline. 

“We strongly welcome Minister Plibersek’s commitment to keep all options on the table to deliver real water to the river in line with the original plan, including voluntary buybacks, to make up the difference if the other parts of the plan fall short. 

“We also applaud the crystal clear position of the SA Government and Water Minister Susan Close, and her withdrawal of support for the controversial 2018 ‘socio-economic test’ that has made it much harder for all states to deliver efficiency and constraints management projects.” 

The Water Minister Kevin Anderson has today confirmed, with its release of a response to the Floodplain Harvesting Inquiry Report, that the Government is intent on continuing to ignore community outcry.

“In recent years we have seen horrific fish kills and rapidly shrinking Ramsar wetlands, in part because too much water has been taken from floodplains,” Nature Conservation Council Chief Executive Chris Gambian said. 

“Everyone agrees that floodplain harvesting must be licenced and reduced, but the way the NSW government wants to do it runs the risk of locking in ecological collapse.” 

Despite the widespread concerns of the community in the Basin, the Minister has made no concessions to the needs of the environment, First Nations and water users downstream.

“The deal that the government is offering the community in terms of flow targets would be just enough to keep a few puddles wet in the bottom of the river after a drought. The river needs enough water so it can support aquatic life, and a few puddles can’t do that,” Mr. Gambian said.

Under the current proposed licencing regime, there would be no reduction of floodplain harvesting in the Macquarie Valley upstream of the Macquarie Marshes.

“How is the NSW government reconciling their legal responsibility to protect the iconic Ramsar listed Macquarie Marshes with their plans to licence all of the existing floodplain harvesting diversions in this catchment?” 

In their report the government admits that the current level of floodplain harvesting diversions is harming the environment and negatively impacting communities and water users downstream.

“Despite knowing the impacts, the government are willing to licence large volumes of floodplain harvesting before ensuring that the water being taken can be accurately measured. That shifts a massive amount of water away from the environment and communities to big irrigation agribusiness.”