Karen Middleton
When officials were tasked with designing the national plan to manage the flows of the Murray–Darling Basin, they were supposed to use the best available science to calculate how much water would need to be diverted from irrigators’ allowances to support the environment.
But according to one who was involved, the method used to determine how many thousand billion litres should be recovered was far from scientific. They joked about basing the first four digits of the figure on a random NSW postcode.
Speaking to the Murray–Darling Basin Royal Commission, former Murray–Darling Basin Authority official David Bell said this was because there was a “very clear understanding” coming from the board and management that whatever the figure was, it had to begin “with a number two”.
Inland Rivers Network 