Northern Victorian Nationals federal MP for Nicholls, Damian Drum, has again called for the Murray Darling Basin Authority to be split up, saying irrigators continue to be ignored by the organisation.
Victorian Nationals recently called for the Murray-Darling Basin Authority to be split into three separate entities and the Basin Plan's 450 gigalitres of environmental "up water" to be scrapped.
Mr Drum said it was a critically important time, in what was shaping up to be a wet year, to maintain the pressure for water reform.
"In effect, that means reforming the MDBA and alterations to the Murray-Darling Basin Plan," Mr Drum said.
"We need to think very hard to see if we can split the MDBA.
"When it's said and done, there is nobody in the bureaucratic system, or in the regulatory system, that has actually been looking after our irrigators."
He said it appeared the MDBA was favouring the environment, and "securing more water, at any cost.
"I think we need people that can work on behalf of the states to finish off what they believe the plan should look like.
"'We need someone else to operate the rivers, and another group to advocate for the irrigators."
He said a "genuine" group, prepared to argue for irrigators, needed to be put in place.
"I think you would put someone in there from the respective states; it's the states that have a parochial view to the water they have at their disposal," Mr Drum said.
"The states have so many fantastic people out there who understand the water industry.
"And they approach it with a balanced, and measured view - they are the people that need to be put in postions of authority."
He said it appeared federal Water Minister Keith Pitt was waiting for the completion of various inquiries, including the Sefton socio-economic report and the final Australian Competition and Consumer Commission investigation on trading, before making any final decisions on the plan and the MDBA.
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"I'm hoping Sir Angus, as someone who is effectively devoid of ego, can look at this and make a cool, calm judgement that the authority does, have conflicting responsibilities," Mr Drum said.
The MDBA was a federal body, so change would not necessarily involve approval by the states and territories.
Mr Drum also castigated talk about further water buybacks.
"When the authority talks about buybacks, I think they lost any final bits of credibility, they may be hanging onto.
"Buybacks have to be acknowledged, as the most damaging, dangerous and demoralising of policies."
He said when buybacks took place, he didn't think the collective damage they would cause was adequately acknowledged .
"Farmers can take the money and run and end up in a break-even transaction, but it is the broader community and the region, that suffers the damage,' he said.
Mr Drum also took aim at environmental watering.
"At the end of the reasonably good winter we had last year, the environment tipped $60million in water, down the Goulburn River, to have this minimal impact on fish breeding, stocks,' he said.
"Somebody has to call that out, for what it is, are you going to spend $60m of water on some obscure improvement, in fish breeding stocks?
"There is little doubt the environment is doing whatever it wants and not being held to any account."
Mr Drum said Mr Pitt needed to hear from communities about what they thought, and not just in times of crisis.
"This is is about getting ahead of the game and maintaining our pressure on two specific main aspects.
"We have to keep pushing and pressuring for the authority to be split, and we have to ensure, as we go forward, we have to do a whole range of projects, that we can't ever contemplate after going back after buybacks."
He said authorities needed to look at complementary measures, including engineering works or cleaning up river systems, to achieve outcomes which would not require more water leaving the consumptive pool.
The MDBA and Commonwealth Environmental Water Holder have both been contacted for comment.
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Andrew Miller
I'm a general reporter with Stock & Land, with a special interest in irrigation issues. I completed my cadetship, with the Age, in 1980. Over my career, I've worked for ABC radio news (Mt Isa, Qld) and at provincial and suburban newspapers.
I'm a general reporter with Stock & Land, with a special interest in irrigation issues. I completed my cadetship, with the Age, in 1980. Over my career, I've worked for ABC radio news (Mt Isa, Qld) and at provincial and suburban newspapers.
