NSW Member for Murray Helen Dalton has come out swinging in her campaign to scuttle Canberra’s plans to buy back more water from the Murray-Darling Basin system, saying there is “no more water left to give”.
The Federal Government has already taken 1231.2 gigalitres from the waterways and is now seeking up to another 450GL.
Ms Dalton says “every single drop of water that leaves the community through buybacks” has a seriously detrimental across the basin.
She says it is economically devastating, but it doesn’t stop there.
“The ripple effect is so damaging socially, and environmentally as well and under the basin plan, 84 per cent of the water already recovered has come from the southern basin,” Ms Dalton says.
“And to put it in simple English – there is no more water left to give.”
“The current 46GL buyback tender is part of the gap for the original sustainable diversion limits (SDLs) – it isn’t even part of the 450GL we still have looming over our heads.
“Under this buyback proposal, 10GL is to come from NSW Murray general security volume, but what the Federal Government isn’t telling you is the high-security equivalent they are chasing means the figure is closer to 16GL.
“How does this government seriously think we are going to grow the food this nation needs when its keeps taking water from our farmers?”
Ms Dalton claims Environment and Water Minister Tanya Plibersek’s buybacks are putting at risk $24 billion in southern basin staple food production.
And says she will be calling for NSW Government to support Victoria’s stance on no more buybacks.
“We should be asking how the government even proposes to deliver this additional volume of water downstream when there is already significant environmental damage and distress upstream under current volumes,” she added.
“It is only going to get worse.”
In 2015, the Australian Government legislated a 1500 gigalitre cap on surface water purchases to ensure the Basin Plan delivers a balanced outcome for the economy, for Basin communities and for the environment.
A total of 268.8 GL is left remaining under the cap on purchase of surface water entitlements.
A government spokesperson says the water already recovered is being used to make a real difference to the environment and the communities that depend on it.
He says environmental flows have:
· Helped fish spawning, including the largest Murray cod spawning event in the past 20 years
· Provided breeding habitats for thousands of waterbirds
· Supported the recovery of important native wetland and riverbank plants
· Helped to reconnect rivers in the Basin.
