FLOODPLAIN graziers are offering the government a Christmas present in the form of a legal right to flood their properties, a gesture that could help solve the intractable dispute over the Murray-Darling Basin.
Nearly 400,000 hectares have already been signed up to voluntary ''flood easements'', which environmentally-minded livestock farmers hope will let the government pump more water back into the system than the 2750 billion litres being discussed under the controversial Murray-Darling Basin draft plan.
The Environment Minister, Tony Burke, told the Herald that the offer could make ''a significant difference'' to the hitherto bruising talks on the draft plan to restore the health of the river system.
The Australian Floodplain Association, which represents graziers and environmentalists, has brought together property owners across the basin who are prepared to waive their right to sue the government if it floods their land - removing a key obstacle the government has cited for not boosting the amount of water it will push down the river system.
So far they have nearly 400,000 hectares signed up - roughly a third of the size of Sydney - and expect to have several times this by early next year.
''It looks to me in the basin plan that the government is baulking at returning enough water to the system and they're saying that they can't go flooding private land,'' said Mark Etheridge, a sheep grazier and president of the Australian Floodplain Association. ''We're saying, 'Yes please, flood us and we'll indemnify you by creating voluntary easements.' We can't be flooded enough.''
He said floodplain pastures became about 20 times more productive after a flood, which was a natural part of the river cycle. The association is working with Friends of the Earth and the law firm Baker McKenzie, which is working pro bono.
Environmentalists and graziers are unhappy with the 2750 billion litre figure in the draft plan, arguing that at least 4000 billion litres is needed to flush salt through the Murray mouth and restore floodplains and wetlands.
Mr Burke and the independent Murray-Darling Basin Authority has argued that the basin is now a man-made environment with farms, towns, bridges, canals and other infrastructure that pose limits or ''constraints'' on how much water can flow through the system. If water managers cause a river to overflow, surrounding property-owners could sue the government.
Mr Burke told the Herald that the graziers' gesture could make a big difference, though the government needed to consider other factors, including the economic impact on irrigation communities.
A spokesman for Friends of the Earth, Jonathan La Nauze, said: ''This case also busts open the myth that there's only one kind of farmer out there. In fact 69 per cent of farmers in the basin are not irrigators and … many of them are only too willing to facilitate an increase in environmental flows.''
