Moree mayor Katrina Humphries has slammed bureaucratic and government handling of the Murray-Darling Basin Plan following serious allegations made in Monday night’s Four Corners report about misuse of water pumping in the Barwon-Darling.
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The ABC program aired leaked recordings of NSW’s top water bureaucrat, Gavin Hanlon, apparently offering to share confidential information with irrigation lobbyists to help them lobby against the Murray-Darling Basin Plan, as well as discussing a possible plan to withdraw the state from the $13 billion project.
Cr Humphries said while she believed the Four Corners report was “sadly fairly accurate”, it also raised some serious questions about the compentency of the NSW Department of Primary Industries water department.
“I think the question needs to be asked, who’s running the department?” she said.
“Who’s in charge, the bureaucrats or the government? A whole government department shouldn’t be proud of the behaviour of some of their staff. It’s weak leadership that has allowed this appalling bureacratic behaviour to flourish.”
Cr Humphries said she would like to see NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian step up and take action on the issue “to restore good faith in the industry, and more importantly, to restore good faith in the water systems”.
“The arrogance of which NSW has treated the Murray-Darling Basin Authority and the Murray-Darling Basin landowners has jeopardised the opportunity for good irrigators to make a difference with on-farm efficiency,” she said.
The Four Corners report also alleged a number of large-scale cotton irrigators in the Barwon-Darling had been illegally tampering with their water meters in an effort to mask the amount of water being pumped from the river.
Cr Humphries was a member of the Northern Basin Advisory Council for the Murray-Darling Basin Authority for four years, advising on the socio-economic concerns of the plan, which she believes has been poorly managed from the start.
“The communities of NSW and of the Murray-Darling Basin can now see the arrogrance that we have had to put up with,” she said.
“The Murray-Darling Basin Plan was enacted in parliament and we need to make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear.”
Cr Humphries said water is vital and needs to be “managed in a way that gives people faith”.
“We are the driest, habitable continent in the world and we need to better manage our water,” she said. “We haven’t got enough water to do what we need to do and we need to be more productive. But we need people to have rights to their water, to have water for their stock and their domestic needs. Town’s need water.
“Water is the lifeblood of the west.”
‘Australia needs our cotton industry’
While the report focussed on the misuse of water by a select few irrigators, Cr Humphries said it failed to mention the benefits the cotton industry brings to the region, let alone the country.
“Australia needs our cotton industry,” she said.
“There’s hardly anyone that doesn’t have any cotton sheets or cotton garments in their wardrobe.
“Our cotton industry is vital - it’s a legally functioning, respected industry and it is being tarnished by a few irrigators doing the wrong thing.
“It’s a terrible shame when there’s so many people in the industry doing extremely good work.”
There’s a whole heap of very good people out there, bread and butter farmers, graziers and irrigators who have children in our schools, they’re employing people, paying their taxes and doing the right thing. They don’t deserve to be sullied in this way.
- Katrina Humphries, Moree mayor
The Gwydir Valley is a closed system with water stored in Copeton Dam (which covers Moree), unlike the Barwon-Darling which only receives water as a result of rain or excess water flows from connected systems upstream.
“In the Gwydir Valley we have a really good history,” Cr Humphries said.
“Copeton Dam was built purely for irrigation purposes – 27 per cent capacity has been returned to the environment and that’s been done through good practice and good management.
“We have a lot of decent people in the valley who can be immensely proud of their industry. I don’t want to see this program destroy that.
“There’s a whole heap of honest and reliable people out there, bread and butter farmers, graziers and irrigators who have children in our schools, they’re employing people, paying their taxes and doing the right thing.
“They don’t deserve to be sullied in this way.”
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