Murray-Darling Basin Plan - Adjournment Speech
New South Wales has failed the Murray-Darling Basin. It has failed the communities of the basin, it has failed to protect the rivers, flood plains and wetlands of the basin, and it has failed the many species of birds, frogs, reptiles, turtles and fish that rely on healthy freshwater ecosystems for their survival.
Over the past decade, we have witnessed the devastation of our rivers. We have seen scientists digging out turtles from metres of mud, many millions of dead fish at Menindee Lakes and regional towns increasingly without safe drinking water. Just today, the River Rangers at Walgett posted photos of the Namoi and the Barwon rivers running lurid green. That is a stain on this State's conscience—a direct result of decades of priority given to irrigators over the health of our waterways.
Thousands of submissions have just been made to the review of the Basin Plan. Experts have provided evidence to what we witness. The message is clear that much fault lies with New South Wales. In his submission to the review of the Basin Plan, the Inspector-General of Water Compliance states that there is a:
… systemic risk in areas including governance, funding, accounting, modelling, measurement, implementation, asset management, constraints, program design and infrastructure delivery.
The Inspector-General of Water Compliance is former NSW Nationals Minister Troy Grant. He explains the issues that caused regulatory failure in New South Wales, exposed by Four Corners in 2017, have still not been addressed in full. The critique by the Commissioner for the River Murray in South Australia is that New South Wales's water management framework is broken and compliance enforcement is weak, and it lacks the political will to implement necessary reforms. The Murray Lower Darling Rivers Indigenous Nations, or MLDRIN, say that they have had their water taken away and that this is a second wave of dispossession. Governments continue to prioritise irrigation ahead of First Nations people and river health. First Nations people are excluded from meaningful decision-making. They have no faith in the ability of New South Wales to manage water responsibly.
There are several matters common to many submissions that can and should be addressed by New South Wales. The first is to account for all water take. New South Wales fails to account for all floodplain harvesting. It is fudging the books when it reports floodplain harvesting take in its sustainable diversion limit reporting. Relating to that, the inspector-general said:
… the water theft that was taken by irrigators that Pumped highlighted, that was akin to shoplifting. If we don't get the SDL accounting right ... that's akin to bank robbery. That's a difference in scale.
The second matter is to redress the increased sustainable diversion limits. Sustainable diversion limits have been increased in New South Wales since 2012. It is the opinion of Bret Walker, SC, the former Commissioner of the South Australian Murray-Darling Basin Royal Commission, that increasing the limits is unlawful. The River Integrity Project's submission states:
The Basin Plan has had no net effect in Northern New South Wales. Sustainable Diversion Limits in Northern New South Wales are now 2,342 gigalitres, higher than irrigation take of 2,307 gigalitres when the Basin Plan was made.
The third matter is to manage water in a genuine partnership with First Nations. In that regard, MLDRIN recommends the Truth Telling Commission for Water be established to:
(a) document the history of aqua nullius, (b) recognise First Nations' pre-existing water rights and responsibilities, and (c) develop pathways for restorative justice in water allocation, ownership, and management across the Murray-Darling Basin.
The fourth matter is to include climate change in legal limits. New South Wales can address climate change both by formally including it in its long-term annual extraction limits and also through its water allocation policy. Those are not the findings of political opponents. They are the findings of independent experts, community organisations and the Inspector-General of Water Compliance himself. They confirm what we have known for years: New South Wales cannot be trusted to manage the basin's water resources without meaningful Commonwealth oversight.
The Basin Plan was a national agreement, and it requires national oversight to ensure that all States meet their obligations. Handing oversight back to the States would be a retreat from responsibility and an abdication of the Commonwealth's duty to protect this critical national resource. If New South Wales wants less Commonwealth oversight, it needs to step up by accounting for all forms of take, staying within legal limits that do not change, creating genuine partnerships with First Nations and supplying them with water, and incorporating climate change into allocations. If those poor turtles are anything to go by, less Commonwealth oversight for New South Wales is absolutely the last thing anyone should want.