It is barely two weeks since NSW Water Minister Melinda Pavey reminded us as guest speaker of NSW FarmWriters of Interim Inspector General Mick Keelty's words that NSW is now "the leader in water accountability".
However, the State Government can't afford to bask in that praise, potentially at the expense of its irrigators, as the long overdue Water Resource Plans still hang over its head, with a hard deadline of June 30.
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The rate of progress on water saving measures in NSW has literally slipped 12 months behind the original deadline of June 30, 2019, and, as the NSW Irrigators Council points out, increasingly puts at risk the future use of water for farming in this state.
That is because without the signed-off plans in place, federal government water buy-backs is back on the table as an option.
Meanwhile, the historical disparity in metering between the north and south has been a factor in feulling negative sentiment in the south towards the north, and in the north is one of the key areas for delay in the state's Water Resource Plans.
MDBA chief executive officer Phillip Glyde drew particular attention to this issue in the MDBA report card, but theoretically if the plans make it in on time (and are signed off), this should be addressed.
So where will that leave the agitators among the north-south divide? Probably in the same position.
This is because the frustration is also from factors such as access to general security water, a diminishing resource in all but the wettest of seasons, leaving general security irrigators increasingly short on allocation.
The cascading priority of "buckets" that currently must be filled before southern irrigators get their general security fill will remain a sticking point because the buckets at the top (i.e. South Australia, environmental flows, delivery flows and high security water) have got bigger.
Other pressure points that could still undermine the plans include Tamworth Regional Council's concerns around out-of-date inflow data and further calls for the submission of the plans to be delayed until the results arrive from the ACCC water market inquiry.
Therefore, maybe Mr Simpkin's point should be considered (see p11) - that more flexibility is still needed to either wait until these plans are right and have the backing of the community, or that there be the flexibility to come back and change the plans post deadline.
