Recent paintings of the Darling Barka
May 1 – 18 Opening Night Friday May 3rd 6pm
The Corner Store Gallery
382 Summer Street, Orange
http://www.cornerstoregallery.com
M Gray
We Need a Broad Review for a Complex Plan
Inland Rivers Network President Bev Smiles talks to ABC Riverina 24th April 2019
The complexities in the Basin and the world of water reform are deep, and have taken many years to develop – it will take a review with very broad terms of reference to do justice to the issues we face in the Basin. There has been a spate of reviews into the Murray Darling Basin, but they all have a narrow view and deal with only certain details of the implementation of the Plan.
From an environmental point of view, we need to look at the type of licences that are being bought back. Some types of licences might not be delivering the types of environmental outcomes required under the Basin Plan. We need an audit of all environmental water being held.
We need a review broad enough to look at the whole Basin. For example, many residents and stakeholders are unhappy with the Northern Basin Amendments, which takes in the whole Darling River system. Clearly this system is extremely stressed, as we experienced with the massive fish kill at the beginning of the year.
The socio-economic definitions being referred to in the public debate are too narrow, only focusing on those few communities that rely heavily on irrigation. There are many other industries in the Basin that rely on water; commercial fishing in SA, recreational fishing, tourism and grazing for example. We cannot afford to be blinkered and risk neglecting many interconnected economies and communities for the sake of one.
Inland Rivers Network has always said that communities that are heavily reliant on irrigation will need help. Built into the Murray Darling Basin Plan was money for Regional Diversification – where is this money, and what benefits have communities seen from it?
Environmental water buy backs are easily blamed for the hardships felt in irrigation communities, but the reality is far more complex. Drought will be a tough time for irrigation communities regardless of what is going on in water reform. Another important point to consider is that when water became a tradable property separate from land, anybody could buy water access licences and shift them to different valleys, impacting existing industries as other industries grew.
Water reform and Basin Plan implementation is very complex, and it deserves a very broad, big picture review.
The Floodplain Dilema
The Land
Taking water from the top means less at the bottom, say irrigators.
EVER-widening divisions between graziers and irrigation farmers on floodplains in the state’s north, while in the south disgust at how paying water users are being treated, is heightening tensions within the Murray-Darling Basin.
This estimated 3000GL far exceeds the 1800GL NSW and Victoria are legally obliged to supply to South Australia.
Floodplain harvesting an ‘unmeasured’ threat to water security
Melissa Gray, Healthy Rivers Dubbo
“not only do floodplain harvesting diversions deny economic opportunities across the Northern Basin, left unregulated they are one of the most significant threats to water security in the Northern Murray-Darling Basin”.
centralwesterndaily.com.au/earth-first-floodplain-harvesting
‘Anomaly’ lets farmer use environmental water for cotton crop
By Peter Hannam
An unsolicited modification of licences for irrigators on the Macquarie River has allowed water earmarked for protecting one of the most important wetlands in the Murray-Darling Basin to be diverted for a cotton crop.
Restoring Rigour to the Basin Plan
Pull The Other One, Murray Darling is not in Safe Hands
SMH
By Richard Beasley
When a lawyer of the standing of Bret Walker SC uses language such as “maladministration”, “unlawful”, “gross negligence” and “indefensible” to describe the conduct of a statutory authority, it’s understandable that it attracts attention.
