OUTSPOKEN NSW MP Helen Dalton claims the Murray-Darling Basin Plan is “destroying the environment”.
“We’ve got river bank sloping, poor water quality, they’re running the rivers hard, and that’s not good,” the Member for Murray told The Guardian on Friday at the River Peoples’ Forum in Swan Hill.
Mrs Dalton is calling on federal Water Minister Tanya Plibersek to have a “frank” discussion with her about the issues faced by the Murray-Darling community and the problems with the plan.
“There’s a lot wrong with it,” she said.
“Tanya Plibersek has announced that she’s going to take another 450 gigalitres of water out of the productive system, and that’s a real concern for all of us.
“I’m trying to speak to Tanya. I think it would be a good idea to sit down and have an honest discussion with me.
“I’m the only NSW MP here – both the federal and state Water Ministers aren’t here, and that’s a real shame because they need to understand what’s going on.”
Mrs Dalton joined about 60 other people at the forum last Friday, with discussions and presentations focused on the plan, watering the floodplain, Lower Darling case study, floodplain harvesting, and Indigenous’ perspectives.
Event organiser Peta Thornton said in her opening address that “the aim of today is to come together as a community”.
Mrs Dalton highlighted the issues faced by people of the region.
“For the people in the region, they realise there’s a lot of problems with the water, so this forum is to highlight that and come up with solutions,” she said.
“Every drop that leaves a community leads to hardship – that will be cutting of services, people leaving town, and we are a very productive and vibrant area right through my electorate.
“Obviously Swan Hill is in Victoria, but in my electorate, it’s a powerhouse of agriculture, and we want some assurances.
“We need to look at its natural cycle, which is sometimes full and at times go into leaner periods, but their playing with nature in keeping the rivers full trying to deliver water to the lower reaches where it’s undeliverable without flooding people and enormous consequences.
“We’ve got unregulated floodplain harvesting in the north, and their handing out licenses now that will exceed the legal limit of take – that has to be addressed now.
“I don’t think these people are genuine – certainly not the NSW border minister – basically, he wants to hand out these licenses to a select group of northern irrigators.
“These licenses will be beyond the legal limit, and we haven’t yet done the metering or monitoring of water and until we can work out what’s going on then how do we regulate all of that.”
