Group chair Alan Mathers said the plan is supposed to provide certainty on the rules to productive users and others, ‘‘but really provides for further erosion of our rights to access our fair share of this essential resource — water’’.
‘‘Ignoring the community’s key priorities and arbitrary timelines for implementing the Basin Plan have resulted in inadequate and incomplete consultation in the New South Wales Murray, with many key issues outstanding and unresolved that will potentially impact our region well into the future,’’ Mr Mathers said.
‘‘This is supposed to be a New South Wales plan that clearly lays out the rules for the equitable sharing of the available New South Wales Murray water resource, between productive users and the environment.
‘‘Instead it reads as an environmental plan without appropriate equitable recognition of the fundamental realities of existing operational rules and protection of existing irrigator rights.’’
The draft WSP and the two to three 3 year process used to get to this stage has been described by community representatives as one of the most time consuming, frustrating and disappointing consultation processes they have ever been involved with.
Stakeholders say a number of the recommendations will impact on the sovereign right of NSW to control water within its state boundaries
”When is some common sense and equity in delivering a triple bottom line outcome going to be demonstrated, because this document certainly isn’t it,’’ Mr Mathers said.
He said the groups would be providing the NSW Minister for Water Melinda Pavey with a united ‘Dissenting Report’.
It will clearly lay out the remaining issues that require further consultation and resolution, which Mr Mathers said should have been completed prior to the premature release of the draft to the MDBA for consideration.
He said while the department acknowledges a few of the outstanding issues that require further consultation, their Murray Response document was disingenuous and failed to refer to many of our concerns and requests.
‘‘Whatever happened to ‘Team New South Wales’? We urge the minister to remind her department that they work under her and are employed by state tax payers, not the Murray Darling Basin Authority, nor the Federal Government.
‘‘New South Wales needs to get this right for the future of its communities, not just tick a box by a date.’’
Mr Mathers added since the first draft was released late last year, MRSG representatives have spent hundreds of hours of their time attempting to ensure that existing water property rights would not be impacted.
‘‘They have even gone to the extent of going through the draft WSP word for word making recommendations and suggestions on a more balanced and acceptable plan. Despite this, apart from a couple of minor changes, our concerns have been ignored,’’ he said.
‘‘The implementation of the Basin Plan through these plans is supposed to provide certainty for everyone, not further muddy the waters.
‘‘Genuine consultation with the appropriate actions are needed before any resolution can be found to the major issues, not just ‘tick-a- box’ lip service and move on. It has been ‘Clayton’s consultation’ — the consultation you have, when you’re not having consultation.
‘‘This proposed plan needs to be pulled and all serious outstanding issues given due consideration with genuine consultation.’’
