Hugh Schuitemaker,  Murray Pioneer

Advocacy for South Australian irrigators in an upcoming Murray- Darling Basin Plan review will be crucial, according to a Riverland politician and regarded figure on water management issues.

Former Chaffey MP Karlene Maywald was a guest speaker at the Renmark Irrigation Trust (RIT) annual general meeting, held last month at Hotel Renmark, with the topic being Our Murray River: Hindsight and Insights.

Ms Maywald – who was the region’s State MP during the Millennium Drought and development of the Murray-Darling Basin Plan – said speaking at the event was an opportunity to consider the current management of water resources.

“It’s good to take the opportunity to reflect on where we’ve been, where we’ve come to, and what’s next,” Ms Maywald said.

“The thinking around ‘Hindsight and Insights’ was a really good opportunity for me to come up and share my thinking.

“I’m also an irrigator”¦ I have exactly the same concerns about where we’re going and what we need to be doing next.

“I do think there’s a great opportunity for us in South Australia to get back in the driver’s seat of this whole process.”

Ms Maywald said strong advocacy was needed for South Australia in the upcoming 2026 review of the Murray-Darling Basin Plan.

“It’s not a matter of saying ‘happy’,” she said.

“We’ve still got work to do. The Basin Plan is by no means a perfect document, it’s a document that’s the product of really intense, trans-boundary negotiations between really significant vested interests.

“It was the best we could get at the time, with the politics as it was at the time. This is an opportunity to have another go at actually getting it better, so I think getting on the front foot of those discussions is a really good thing for South Australia to be doing.

“It’s really important to be on top of the issues, because when policy is initiated out of Canberra, and driven by Canberra, it will have a one-size-fits-all tendency.”

Ms Maywald said increased co-operation between South Australian irrigators and those in other Murray-Darling states was needed for beneficial progression in water management policy.

“Realistically speaking, we can throw stones at people upstream, but they are just farmers too, doing their best for their families and they don’t like change either,” she said.

“We’ve all got to work together though in trying to find a way forward, and the more we understand about other people’s pain, the more we can share our pain and their pain, and find a way forward.

“That’s what we’ve got to be doing more of. Communities need to be able to speak to communities, not just bureaucrats.”

Ms Maywald said local water users could have confidence in the levels of representation and advocacy provided by RIT, and Barmera-based Central Irrigation Trust (CIT).

“It’s really important the nuances of the local impacts and consequences are known, so they can be considered in the thinking,” she said.

“With someone like (RIT CEO) Rosalie (Auricht), and (CIT CEO Greg McCarron), you’ve got two really competent organisations that are well positioned to put forward those arguments.”  

This article appeared in the  Murray Pioneer,  11 December 2024.