The NSW government has been given the green light to issue floodplain harvesting licences after Water Minister Kevin Anderson gazetted the regulations last Friday.
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The same regulations have already been disallowed four times.
The difference this time around is a disallowance can not be put as parliament will not sit again until after the March 25 election, essentially circumventing political process. It is this timing, which has come under fire from some areas of parliament.
The gazetting was not unexpected with the four month moratorium since the last disallowance ending on January 21.
Greens MP Cate Faehrmann said the gazetting of the regulations so close to the election showed "utter contempt for NSW voters".
"This shows complete contempt for voters, traditional owners, downstream communities and farmers who have raised the alarm about these regulations for the entire last term of parliament," Ms Faehrmann said.
"The National Party has effectively hamstrung the will of the parliament by introducing these regulations now, knowing that we will have no opportunity to vote on them until well after the election.
"After each disallowance, I've called on the Water Minister to sit down and negotiate with the community instead of trying to shove the same laws down their throats again, but each time he's done exactly that.
"We all want to see floodplain harvesting licensed, metered and measured, but it needs to be ecologically sustainable and within existing legal limits."
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NSW Irrigators' Council CEO Claire Miller believes the delay in floodplain harvesting reforms have hurt the environment.
"Everyone agrees that floodplain harvesting must be regulated, reduced and metered," Ms Miller said.
"The political games played with this reform have left floodplain take unregulated, unlimited, unmetered and free for years longer than need be.
The political games played with this reform have left floodplain take unregulated, unlimited, unmetered and free for years longer than need be.
- Claire Miller, NSW Irrigators' Council CEO
"Claims that regulation gifts more water to irrigators are just wrong.
"Farmers have already been using this water unlimited for decades.
"Regulation means they lose up to a third of their current access, returning 100 billion litres per year on average to floodplains, rivers and creeks.
"The biggest loser has been the environment, which has missed out on additional water over the last three La Nina years thanks to the delays in floodplain harvesting regulation."
The Water Minister was asked why, despite the regulations being disallowed four times before, he gazetted them without changes to first flow targets and the Menindee minimum, and what he hoped to achieve before the election? Mr Anderson did not answer these questions.
