Who would have thought that politics would breed dishonesty and half-truths? The latest push by Federal Labor water minister, Tanya Plibersek, is a perfect example.
Despite environmental water agencies holding more than 4,600 gigalitres of entitlement, the Feds are hell bent on acquiring almost 800 gigalitres more through the completion of SDL programs and the extra 450 gigalitres demanded by the foot stamping, sabre rattling, dummy spitting South Australian Government.
What is the problem in ‘saving the environment’ you may ask. Well, to first save the environment, we must first identify what is the environment, what is environmental water and which rivers and geographical areas have which problems.
It’s been a while since Peter Garrett danced to implore people to ‘Save the Murray’. While he didn’t do so much of a rain dance, he has attracted a lot of water down the Murray. These high flows are ripping the very fabric of our river system to shreds, taking with it infrastructure, habitat and magnificent red gums. Erosion is normal, you may state. Yes, it is to a degree, but 12 metres plus in 10 years off our banks? If we had done that for the last hundred years, my office would have waterfront views! I reached out to Mr Garrett to talk about our plight, but maybe the issue is less appetising without the political ambitions.
Have you noticed the river lately? How many flood warnings have we experienced in the last 18 months? That’s great for the environment, but it’s not environmental water. It is amazing what you can do with a department like the Murray-Darling Basin Authority and the political power wielded. If one was to hold 4,600 gigalitres of water and wanted even more of the resource for SA and diluting the Southern Ocean, keeping the dams full is a great way to achieve that objective. The fuller the dams, the more the spills. Not spills in the old sense when people lost carryover and river pumpers could access supplementary water. Modern spills, where unregulated flows are plentiful, wetting icon sites, providing salt mitigation, end of system targets, water to SA and you still have all the other parcels of water set aside for dilution flows, conveyance, allocations (state and domestic) and yes, you still hold 4,600 gigalitres to save the environment.
One only needs to glance over the Gunbower Forest to show the water wealth and power governments wield. Despite last year’s prolonged artificial and natural flooding, artificial flows started earlier this year into the forest, unregulated flows then took over, artificial flows started again after the river drop because the allotted environmental water wasn’t used, and now another unregulated flow event. Give those gum trees a snorkel and some floaties!
Okay, there may be a hint of sarcasm in my critique of the ‘Authority’ and ‘our lord and saviours’ from on high. Don’t take my word for it, watch what happens to solution-based approaches put up by two leading grass roots advocacy groups. We have the best part of 10 years of social and economic data on the perverse impacts of water acquisition. Now, once again, real solutions have been put forward from Murray Regional Strategy Group (MRSG) and Southern Riverina Irrigators.
MRSG has developed a suite of projects with the cooperation of world-renowned river scientists, working with local volunteers who have decades of lived experience on our complex river systems, and Southern Riverina Irrigators has devised a solution to restore more flows to the Darling Barker and protect our communities and rivers.
MRSG chair, Geoff Moar, said the Bill put forth by Ms Plibersek includes reintroduction of water buybacks, “which are not in anyone’s best interest.
“There is abundant government and independent data that conclusively shows the adverse economic impact of buybacks, including thousands of job losses and the potential for thousands more. Our communities do not want economic decline; we want smart, scientific 21st century solutions that protect our farms, towns and our people.
“These solutions exist; our projects are real and achievable. We want to show Ms Plibersek that by taking a collaborative approach to final stages of the Basin Plan implementation we can have win:win outcomes for our nation and the environment.
“We will be extremely disappointed if Ms Plibersek does not accept our offer, because we are confident she will be impressed with the environmentally-friendly projects that have been developed,” Mr Moar said.
He said the numerous organisations which make-up MRSG have worked together on these projects because they understand the NSW Murray region, along with northern Victoria, have been hit hardest by Murray-Darling Basin Plan implementation and numerous other water recovery strategies.
The real ace up the sleeve of the Murray-Darling Basin Authority and the Albanese Government is they can hoard even more water in the dams, more water, more unregulated flows, aka floods. By this master stroke, they can turn there potentially held over 5,500 gigalitres, after buybacks and SDL’s, into a limitless supply of extra water, further reducing the productive pool. What a boom for the water traders!
Plibersek’s Bill passed the Lower House last week, with a potential vote in the Senate on November 9. A two-day public hearing on the issue has already been oversubscribed with no advertising or opportunity for community groups in our region to attend. There is also no appetite to wait for the outcome of the Productivity Commission’s Interim Report due in December, shock horror.
History will be the judge, but it must be recorded by the people. I have been reliably informed the MDBA’s next social and economic reviews will not use the original community baselines to track the trend. They will shorten the timeframes, as we can’t compare apples with apples, that may paint an unpalatable picture.
The ‘plan’ rolls on.
This article appeared in The Koondrook and Barham Bridge Newspaper, 26 October 2023.
