Plan by Nationals MPs ‘doomed’, say water experts

A PROPOSAL by three National Party MPs, including Member for Mallee Anne Webster, for environmental water to be released for consumptive use is doomed to fail, water experts warn.

Dr Webster joined NSW Nationals Senator Perin Davey and Member for Nicholls Damian Drum on Thursday proposing a private senator’s Bill they hailed as a “win-win” for the environment and farmers, in which the Commonwealth Environmental Water Holder (CEWH) would be forced to release water during times of drought.

They said the move addressed the needs of farmers and communities in the southern Murray-Darling Basin.

“We must consider what is best for our communities,” Dr Webster said.

“By legislating access to environmental water for consumption in dry times, we would achieve a better socioeconomic balance in the basin, which is desperately needed.

“Desperate times call for desperate measures.”

However, Australia Institute senior water researcher Maryanne Slattery said the proposal undermined the Murray-Darling Basin Plan (MDBP) and would need changes made to the Commonwealth Water Act in order to pass.

Ms Slattery does not believe the proposal would have any impact.

“If you just release CEWH’s water and sell back to the market it’s not going to go to things like fodder that we need to keep our breeding stocks alive – it’s going to go to the highest-value use, which is nuts,” she said.

“So it’s not even a short-term solution unless they’re proposing some other market intervention and you direct where that water goes.”

Ms Slattery said Victorian Government analysis showed there was only enough water in the system to keep 40 per cent of the new nut plantations in Sunraysia and the Riverland alive, once fully matured.

“(The nut plantations are) not sustainable anyway and all (this proposal) is doing is shuffling chairs on the Titanic with what’s going to be an inevitable bust of that industry,” she said.

Retired Coomealla irrigator and environmentalist Howard Jones said the proposal was not new but would compromise the MDBP.

“By and large the environment and the plan was set up to have a healthy river and environment and as soon as it gets dry they want to change it,” he said.

“The reason it’s in the condition it’s in now is because they let too much water out, so they don’t recognise the fundamental problem that forced John Howard to start thinking about a basin plan.”

Senator Davey said the Bill would allow the CEWH to use income provided by releasing water to the market on environmental projects or to “purchase allocation in a better season when it can be used for better impact”.

“We have conditions for critical human needs, but we don’t have that missing step between business as usual and that crisis point and that is what we are trying to address,” Senator Davey said.

Dr Webster said farmers in the southern basin were concerned about water flowing past them which they were unable to access and questioned what it was achieving for the environment.

“Importantly, what we are proposing is to help farmers across the southern basin make it through very difficult, dry times. It is not about NSW or Victoria or South Australia, it is about our communities,” she said.

The Bill will be tabled when Parliament returns next year.