FEDERAL Water Minister David Littleproud has warned of more pain across the Murray-Darling Basin as fears rise that a hot summer could trigger more fish kills.
Mr Littleproud is on a three-day tour of the southern part of Australia’s biggest river system with new interim inspector-general Mick Keelty.
With relief from the crippling drought across eastern Australia predicted, the minister said it was important to be up front about what communities are facing.
“I have to be honest with people, there will be more pain and there may be more fish kills,” he told ABC Radio National on Monday.
“Fish don’t do so well without water but I can’t make water, it has to come from the sky and unless it rains, that is the prognosis we face.”
The NSW Government has sounded the alarm ahead of summer, saying there could be a “fish Armageddon” on the back of carnage in the Menindee Lakes at the start of the year.
Mr Littleproud has stressed the lack of rain is to blame, urging people to stay the course with the controversial basin plan.
“Year 8 geography will tell you unless it rains, unless it falls from the sky, runs into the ground and falls into the river system, there is no water to share,” he said.
“If there is no water for farmers, there is no water for the environment.”
He said Mr Keelty, who is a former Australian Federal Police commissioner, would be a tough, but fair, cop to weed out corruption across the basin.
“It’s a lot more mature in the southern basin, it’s more regulated than the northern basin, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t people trying to cut corners.”
The water minister said there was a large degree of frustration stemming from the lack of rain.
Mr Keelty had been northern basin commissioner before the creation of his new role, for which he is the front-runner to take on full-time.
The touring party is in Victoria and on Monday to visit key locations in the southern basin.
The government on Sunday announced $20 million for research into the climate change, ecological and water-use impacts in the basin.
Professor Rob Vertessy, who led a review of mass fish deaths at Menindee, will guide the study.
The Federal Government is also giving $1 million to a new app, Waterflow, which helps farmers access water market information.
