BELEAGUERED NSW water minister Niall Blair has defended claims he waived penalties for a Sydney Basin farmer as a favour to a fellow Coalition MP in 2016.
As Mr Blair’s office tells it, the farmer involved effectively “dobbed himself in” once he was aware the work he was doing on a dam required a different licence, adding the farmer has remediated the site completely at his own expense.
He has also not been given a free irrigation licence.
This week Mr Blair – three months after Four Corners’ Pumped report put him and the National party in the crosshairs – was lumped with the fresh allegation of dodgy water dealings.
The Australian reported that the Sydney Basin farmer – Glossodia market gardener Garry Bugeja – was not issued a penalty notice for illegal dam works in 2015, after then-Hawkesbury MP Ray Williams wrote to Mr Blair asking him to intervene, and give him a free irrigation licence.
The report also said Mr Blair had told parliament in August this year he could not recall representation from an MP that had influenced any DPI Water compliance decision.
Furthermore, it said controversial ex-water bureaucrat Gavin Hanlon had inspected Mr Bugeja’s dam site.
While acknowledging his fellow Coalition member had contacted him, Mr Blair’s office argued the case had reached a fair conclusion after a protracted, three-year saga.
Minister defends Glossodia saga
Mr Blair’s office said Mr Bugeja, who already had a basic stock and domestic water entitlement, was given local council approval to expand a legal dam that had been on his farm since the 1960s.
In 2015 Mr Bugeja began work on expanding the dam but soon realised he might need to get an irrigation licence if he was going to be allowed to complete the project.
The Land was told Mr Bugeja discovered several of his Glossodia neighbours had similar dams licensed and recognised during an amnesty for pre-1999 unlicensed water supply works. But that amnesty ended in December 2011, so he contacted his local MP, Mr Williams, to see if he could get a similar deal to his neighbours.
A spokesman for Mr Blair said the farmer had effectively dobbed himself in by contacting Mr Williams, who in turn wrote to Mr Blair, eventually initiating a visit from Gavin Hanlon and DPI Water in February 2016.
Mr Bugeja was told by DPI Water the work he had started was not allowed unless he got an irrigation licence.
Then, in July 2016, water compliance transferred from Mr Blair’s department (DPI Water) to the state-owned corporation, Water NSW.
In November 2016, Water NSW told Mr Bugeja he would either have to apply for an irrigation licence, or he could remediate the dam to its original state – at his own cost – in line with his existing water entitlement.
Mr Bugeja chose the second option, paid for the work, and does not have an irrigation licence.
Mr Blair’s office said this result – representing years of back-and-forth negotiations – could be considered a fair outcome.
Labor slams Coalition ‘pen-pal club’
MEANWHILE Opposition said the allegations aired in The Australian’s story showed Mr Blair, despite initiating compliance reforms last week, was unable to correct his party’s cultural issues on water compliance.
Labor’s Chris Minns repeated calls for Mr Blair to hand back the water portfolio while his department was subject to four investigations of misconduct allegations.
“It looks like a cosy little pen-pal club where Government MP’s can write to their mates and ask for them to intervene,” Mr Minns said.
“Minister Blair must urgently explain to the thousands of irrigators and farmers who play by the rules, why some people appear to get special attention from his department.
Mr Minns also said state government could wash away some of its latest water woes by releasing a full Broken Hill Pipeline business case – and as a side benefit, see him “shut up about it”.
“I think that if Blair wanted to restore confidence... show us the financials behind Broken Hiill,” he said. “I don’t think it’s restore full confidence, but it would at least shut me up in relation to the pipeline.”
In July Four Corners alleged water theft by cotton irrigators in the Barwon Daring system and widespread meter tampering as well as state regulators failing to enforce compliance regulations and colluding with irrigators to access water recovered for the environment by the Murray Darling Basin Plan.