The NSW Conservation Council calls on all upper house members to vote today to disallow Water Minister Melinda Pavey’s floodplain harvesting regulation. 

“The Parliament has a chance today to act as an effective check-and-balance”.

“This was a reprehensible deal by the Nationals to let irrigators intercept unlimited amounts of water for free. 

Melinda Pavey’s “Exemptions for Floodplain Harvesting” Regulation was issued on February 7th, 2020, and granted an exemption from the Water Management Act, allowing irrigators who had built illegal channels and levees to intercept and store water for free, before it reaches rivers.[1]  

Independent MLC Justin Field today introduced a motion to disallow the floodplain harvesting regulation, which Parliament is likely to vote on this evening.

“First the Nationals over-allocated river water, which stopped the Darling from flowing. Now they’re giving away water before it can even reach the river. 

“Allowing floodplain harvesting is one the greatest transfers of natural resources into private hands in the history of Australia.”

“Floodplain harvesting is killing our rivers. It needs to be reined in, not given a blanket exemption.

“Giving more free water to cotton irrigators is a recipe for more fish kills and widespread blue-green algae.

References
[1] Water Management (General) Amendment (Exemptions for Floodplain Harvesting) Regulation 2020, issued February 7th, 2020. https://www.legislation.nsw.gov.au/view/pdf/asmade/sl-2020-35

The Federal Government’s decision to ban water buy-backs from willing sellers in the Murray Darling Basin ensures the Basin Plan’s 2024 environmental targets will not be met. 

“Federal Water Minister Keith Pitt’s announcement today is the death knell of the Basin Plan,” Nature Conservation Council Chief Executive Chris Gambian said. 

“The change means the Basin Plan must rely solely on engineering solutions to fulfil its aims, which just sets up the Plan for failure.

“Numerous studies have shown water buy-backs are the fastest and most cost-effective way to make the rivers flow again.

“They have also found engineering works are more expensive and return less water to the river while having the perverse effect of stimulating demand from big irrigators and pushing up the price of water. [1]

“Our river systems are in a fight for their lives. Banning water buy-backs means the water authorities are being pushed into the ring with one hand tied behind their backs.

“The winners from this senseless move will be big irrigators who are effectively dictating terms to the government to continue over-extracting water for private profit.

“The losers are the regional communities, native fish and wetlands, Indigenous peoples and all Australians who love our rivers and want them to flow free.

“The government should buy back licences from the north of the basin — from willing sellers — where more water is allocated than can be sustainably delivered,” he said.

“It must vastly improve modelling and monitoring of flows to avoid massive discrepancies like those identified by the Wentworth Group yesterday, and must also make the ownership and trading of water rights totally transparent.

“This move will put struggling native fish populations at further risk and undermines the purpose of the Basin plan — to recover an over-extracted river system to sustainable levels of health.”

References

[1] Recovering water for the environment in the Murray-Darling: farm upgrades increase water prices more than buybacks, The Conversation, 1-9-2020