“Water is my hill to die on”.
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That is the promise NSW Member for Murray Helen Dalton made in Parliament, as she takes on a fight to ensure irrigators have more access to water they already own.
Mrs Dalton is lobbying for the NSW Government to review a long-unchanged policy which she said “forces” NSW Murray irrigators to make a ‘voluntary contribution’ of water for environmental purposes.
Mrs Dalton likened the scheme to water theft, and spoke on the matter in both question time and in presenting a private members' statement.
She has accused the NSW Government of “stealing hundreds of millions of dollars of water” from farming families every year since 2002, and is “demanding that the stealing stops and the stolen water is given back”.
“They weren't really voluntary, because farming families felt they had no choice but to comply to the request,” Mrs Dalton said.
“The deal was meant to be reviewed after 12 months, and again in five years if the ‘voluntary’ contributions scheme was still operating.
“But the reviews never happened, and 23 years later the NSW Government is still taking this water from farming families and rural communities.
“Imagine if I asked to borrow your car for a year and then never gave it back.
“Or imagine if you let me move into your house for a while, and then I just refused to leave and acted like your house was mine.
“Well, that’s what’s happened to farmers, and it’s not okay”.
Rising in question time last week, Mrs Dalton asked Premier Chris Minns to act.
“The scheme is not voluntary. It is forced, and it is destroying our livelihoods and our lives.
“Does the Premier agree with the thousands of rural voters who see voluntary contributions simply as water theft by his government?”
In his reply, Mr Minns challenged the use of the word theft, but did agree some kind of review was required.
“My advice is that the voluntary contributions referred to by the member for Murray date back 20 years and were agreed to as part of development for the first water sharing plans in 2002, which were the initial stages of the Murray-Darling Basin Plan worked out between the state and the Commonwealth. They are entrenched provisions,” Mr Minns said.
“Obviously, future water sharing plans or changes to the provisions that have been pursued by our government and the previous government will be built on the understanding that there will be voluntary contributions from local communities, particularly in the Murray area.
“My advice is - and this may well not be right; I do not profess to be an expert on it - that voluntary contributions result in small reductions of less than five per cent for some individual users of water in Murray.
“This is a complex area of public policy. We do not have a straightforward answer, given it is not just the New South Wales Government that is responsible for water policy or has jurisdiction in this area. The Commonwealth Government has a say as well.
“Although, the member for Murray has pointed out quite succinctly and purposefully that we need to examine the role of South Australia in particular in grabbing that share of water and what is the impact of that on the agricultural sector in New South Wales. I accept that advocacy from the member for Murray, and we are looking into it.”
Mr Minns also made sure to note that this was the 18th time Mrs Dalton has asked questions “in this House” relating to water and water policies.
When given the chance to make a private members statement in the issue later the same day, Mrs Dalton said she would continue to bring the topic to Parliament until she sees meaningful change.
“Out where I live, water policy represents an existential threat,” she said.
“Our state and federal water policies need to be fixed right now.
“Until they are fixed, I am not going to stop talking about water.
“My endless advocacy might feel like water torture to some people in the city. But in the country, water is my hill to die on.
“Politically, it is a fight to the death. And, electorally, if the Minns Government does not get its water policy right soon, that will be its political death, not mine.
“I do not come into this place to cause problems.
“I come here to find solutions, and this is one solution the New South Wales Government must embrace. I ask the Premier and the water Minister to please work with me here.
“Let's fix water. Let's start by ending the water theft that this Government currently and wrongly calls ‘voluntary contributions’.”
Senior journalist