People in the Murray Darling Basin are sick and tired of water reform and do not have the energy to line up again, but the recent fish kill in Menindee has sparked a huge reaction from the Australian public, meaning politicians will have to act.
In 1991 exactly the same thing happened and special low flow rules were established to prevent a repeat, followed in 2007 by an allocation of nearly $13 billion, but Australian taxpayers now question if their dollars have been wasted.
Drought has certainly been the catalyst to the fish kill, but poor government actions have made the problem worse. The basin plan was a difficult balance between agriculture and the environment, but governments now trying to compromise the compromise have delivered an unacceptable environmental disaster.
Irrigation is important to the Australian economy and any reform has to be scientifically based, not at the whim of politicians or environmentalists. I observed first-hand in my role as chairman of the Northern Basin advisory committee of the Murray Darling Basin Authority (MDBA), far too many corners cut and political interference. I also observed a NSW government who played ducks and drakes with the process, and a Queensland government who closed its eyes to indiscretions.
The Menindee Lakes have provided water to Broken Hill for more than half a century, during times when the lakes became low there were embargoes placed on irrigators pumping water to top the lake up.
The NSW government decided to spend $500 million of taxpayers money to build a pipeline 270 kilometres from the Murray River to supply water to Broken Hill. There was a claim draining Menindee would save about 400 meg in evaporation.
There has been no consideration of the farmers who grew grapes around Menindee or the people affected in the town as the water in the lake had been let go by both the NSW government and the MDBA leading to an inevitable fish kill.
Further government mistakes occurred with changes to the Barwon Darling water sharing plan which will allow pumping of low flows, the inability to shepherd taxpayer environmental water downstream and the MDBA modelling. They insist using 120 year averaging, saying it is scientifically defendable, but ignore the reality that if you remove the six major floods, then one in three years the river could be dry.
The South Australian royal commission will report next month, blowing the lid off some of the problems. Sadly federal officials were stopped from appearing, which in itself raised worrying questions.
It is important the incoming Federal Government calls a royal commission to examine MDBA, federal agriculture and water department staff, to expose the full extent of government problems, and lead to implementation of a balanced plan between agriculture and the environment.
- Mal Peters
