The former head of water policy in New South Wales, David Harriss, says he was “moved on” from his job after clashing with the water minister, Kevin Humphries, over plans to increase compliance levels among irrigators.
Harriss, who worked in the office of water for 25 years, also claimed cotton interests in the Barwon-Darling were extremely influential in determining water policy in NSW and that he struggled to get NSW water ministers to take steps to protect environmental flows in the Barwon-Darling.
He said there was often lobbying to lift embargoes on pumping water when the rivers were low.
In one particularly dry year cotton farmers in the Gwydir and Namoi valleys had needed extra water to finish growing a crop, but preferred not to go to the water market to buy it, he said. Instead they lobbied the minister for access to environmental water.
Northern irrigators said, ‘don’t invest the $50m in our area on meters because the water we’d be giving back is far too great’,”
Inland Rivers Network 