Water Sharing Plans
On 4 November, RGA wrote to the NSW Water Minister, Melinda Pavey, and the Department of Planning, Industry and Environment, requesting that the NSW Murray and the Murrumbidgee Water Sharing/Resources Plans be brought back to stakeholders and community for review before submission to the Murray Darling Basin Authority. We wanted to be sure they were amended in response to our submissions raising the alarm about creeping increases in environmental water at the expense of irrigators’ allocations.
The Department advised by email on 27 November that the plans would be submitted to the MDBA by the 31 December deadline without further consultation. This is unacceptable: past experience tells us the department’s vague assurances that the water sharing plans can still be amended later ‘if necessary’, ring hollow. RGA put out a media release calling on the federal Water Minister to extend the deadline. RGA is also busy behind the scenes working the phones to get this impasse resolved at State and federal level.
The Murray-Darling Basin Plan
The Basin Ministerial Council meets on 17 December, with a packed agenda and under mounting pressure to address flaws in the Basin Plan. RGA, like the NFF and other peak bodies, wants a reality check on several fronts, starting with a brake on the 450 GL in efficiency measures, and more flexibility on the 605 GL in supply measures. The bottom line is no more water recovered from the consumptive pool. The Productivity Commission has provided a pathway out of the mess, and we need Basin ministers to get on board.