The Australian Greens acknowledge the important work of this Select Committee Inquiry in examining the issues facing the Australia’s biggest river system, the Murray-Darling Basin. At the outset it is important to note that this inquiry was never intended to be a substitute for an independent commission of inquiry.
There is still an urgent need for a Royal Commission to examine all of the issues impacting the Murray-Darling Basin. A truly independent commission is required to properly examine issues including mismanagement, corporate greed, water theft, flood plain harvesting, environmental flows, changes to Sustainable Diversion Limits (SDLs), Indigenous ownership and cultural flows, and climate change. Ultimately it is needed to ensure delivery of the Plan which is absolutely vital to all of our futures.
It is important to also acknowledge at the outset that water is culturally and spiritually significant to Indigenous peoples in the Basin, and yet there have been significant failures to properly recognise Indigenous peoples’ water values and rights and to properly engage and consult with First Nations Basin communities, as outlined in the Chair’s Report. These failures must be remedied. There should also be an urgent response to addressing the failure to establish a water investment program that supports Aboriginal communities to plan for and implement cultural and economic entitlements. It has been three years since the Federal Government announced $40 million for this project and for Indigenous communities to get access to water from the Murray-Darling Basin for cultural flows. Yet the Murray Lower Darling Rivers Indigenous Nations (MLDRIN) are still waiting for their water. Progressing this is the least the Australian Government could do.
Right now it is incredibly difficult to see how the Plan will be delivered in full and on time. While this is the case, the entire river system is at risk. The National Party and corporate irrigators like to demonise ‘water for the environment’, but the reality is, that is the water that keeps the river alive. It is absolutely vital South Australia (SA) receives the water promised to it under the Plan and not one drop less. Rivers die from the mouth up and it is time the vested interests upstream realise that what happens in SA determines whether the River stays alive for them too.
It is also incredibly difficult to see how the Murray-Darling Basin can be saved while the National Party remains in charge - not just federally but also in NSW. At a hearing of this inquiry, the NSW Water Minister declared that NSW would refuse to give any more water to the environment and demanded changes to the Murray-Darling Basin Plan because there was no more water for downstream states. State Water Ministers making threats to pull out of the Plan is an untenable situation. For too long the eastern states have taken SA and the River for granted and we need to stand up before it's too late.
South Australia, at the end of the River, cannot be blackmailed by a state that has mismanaged their end of the Plan and allowed corporate irrigators to run the show. South Australia needs to stand up to the upstream states to save the Murray-Darling and fight for our state and our environment. If the Federal Government won’t deliver the water needed and promised we should fight for it in the High Court. The Greens have pledged to work with all and any fellow South Australians to save our Murray. This is an issue that South Australian Greens, Labor and Liberals should be able to unite on.
Indeed, there was a united front by South Australian MPs when in June this year, the National Party introduced amendments to a government bill which would reduce environmental flows under the Basin Plan - just two days after Barnaby Joyce was re-elected leader of the Party. It was an extraordinary attack on the River Murray and the people and environment of South Australia by the National Party. The Prime Minister Scott Morrison needs to stand up to the ‘water terrorists’ in the National Party and make sure that Barnaby Joyce cannot call the shots on water policy. The last time Barnaby Joyce was in charge of the water portfolio he oversaw rorting, water theft and the use of public money as a slush fund for corporate irrigators. The Nationals must be stripped of the water portfolio, and some integrity and trust returned to the portfolio.
The National Party position on climate is also incompatible with holding the water portfolio. At the time of reporting, the National Party is tearing itself and the Coalition Government apart over net zero by 2050 emissions targets. This is despite these targets being completely inadequate to prevent further warming of our climate and the science clearly showing that 2030 is the critical deadline for climate.
An evaluation report by the Murray-Darling Basin Authority released in December 2020, shows climate change and corporate greed are the biggest threats to Australia’s biggest river system. The report highlights what the Greens have been saying all along, the climate crisis is plunging the Basin into hotter and drier conditions year after year, meaning water for the environment is crucial to the survival of the Murray-Darling. The MDBA is very clear that without environmental flows the health of the River would’ve suffered even more and the fish kills and algae would have been much worse. The MDBA is also clear that climate change will significantly impact water availability, use and management resulting in flow-on impacts to communities, industries and the environment. This report shows once again why the 450 gigalitres (GL) promised under the Basin Plan must be delivered in full and on time.
Yet if the climate-denying National Party had its way, the Plan would be torn up and upstream corporate irrigators would have taken even more water leaving the rest of the River high and dry. The stubbornness of upstream states when it comes to delivering the MDBP will kill the River. Sustainable Diversion Limit projects are running well behind schedule jeopardising delivery of the Plan and floodplain harvesting continues unchecked. It’s clear water buybacks are needed. Costly and inefficient SDL projects will not return enough water to the system, especially if they are never even delivered.
Research by The Australia Institute and Conservation SA shows that money previously earmarked to return 450GL of water to the environment in South Australia may be used to upgrade over 1200 bridges and increase water storage capacity in New South Wales irrigation districts. The report investigated the current project proposals under the Federal Government’s $1.48 billion off-farm water efficiency program and found that many of the initiatives have little or no prospect for genuine water recovery. The investigation found that only 2.1GL of the 450GL (0.46 per cent) of the environmental water that was promised to SA has so far been recovered, despite $68 million having been spent from the corresponding account.
While water is not only not being returned to the river fast enough, floodplain harvesting upstream is also stopping water from even making it into the system. The result is there are towns such as Wilcannia - once an inland port - that have to have water trucked in despite there being flooding rains upstream. The NSW Government has sought to regulate floodplain harvesting however, the Slattery & Johnson submission to this inquiry identified serious issues in relation to the consequences of NSW proposed floodplain harvesting volumes. It found that the MDBA is intending to increase the Baseline Diversion Limits (BDLs) and the SDLs in the Basin Plan without amending the Basin Plan and therefore avoiding parliamentary oversight. This also avoids requirements set out in the Water Act and Basin Plan. Increasing the SDLs will result in them no longer representing the Environmentally Sustainable Level of Take. This is a breach of the Water Act and if implemented by the MDBA and NSW as intended, there will be no volumetric extraction limits in any NSW or Commonwealth legislation.
Concurrently with this inquiry, a parliamentary inquiry in NSW into floodplain harvesting has been hearing evidence. The former Commissioner of South Australia’s royal commission into the Murray-Darling Basin Plan, Mr Bret Walker SC’s evidence to the NSW Floodplain harvesting inquiry was that the MDBA will be acting unlawfully if it proceeds with this plan. The SDL must represent an environmentally sustainable level of take and cannot be changed just to give upstream states more water. The Federal Government should be holding Basin states accountable for abiding by these levels.
Rivers must run to stay alive but if upstream corporate irrigators keep taking floodplain water downstream users like small family farms, river communities and South Australia will all continue to suffer. Corporate greed must be reined in and action on the climate crisis is desperately needed if we are to save the Murray-Darling, the lifeblood of South Australia and the nation’s largest food bowl.
Recommendations
Recommendation
The Murray-Darling Basin Plan be delivered in full and on time, including the 450GL of environmental water promised to South Australia.
Recommendation
The Australian Greens Murray-Darling Commission of Inquiry Bill 2019, establishing a commission of inquiry, with the same powers as a royal commission, to inquire into the management of the Murray-Darling Basin water resources and related matters, be passed.
Recommendation
The committed investment in cultural flows be progressed as a matter of urgency.
Recommendation
The National Party be stripped of the water portfolio.
Recommendation
Water buybacks must be reinstated as the primary means for recovering water for the environment.
Recommendation
A full audit of water recovered to date be conducted to properly examine the Commonwealth Government’s expenditure on efficiency projects.
Recommendation
That any changes to the BDL and SDL are done in accordance with requirements set out in the Water Act and Basin Plan and are an environmentally sustainable level of take, backed by science.
Recommendation
The Commonwealth Government set a target to reduce Australia's greenhouse gas emissions by 75 per cent on 2005 levels by 2030 and to net zero by 2035.
Senator Sarah Hanson-Young
Greens Senator for South Australia