That is the message NSW Member for Murray Helen Dalton expects members of the NSW Government watery inquiry will hear time and time again during hearings in Griffith yesterday and Deniliquin tomorrow.
The Legislative Assembly Committee on investment, Industry and Regional Development will hold a series of public inquiries looking at the impacts of the Federal Government’s Water Amendment (Restoring Our Rivers) Act 2023 on NSW rural and regional communities.
The amendment includes returning to water buybacks as a means of recovering water for the environment.
Ms Dalton said a report released by Frontier Economic in August 2022 looked at the outcomes as a result of water recovery through buybacks, whether that be under ‘bridging the gap’ and/or the 450GL.
And she said the findings were not positive.
They include:
• A reduction in water use in NSW by 197 gigalitres per year.
• An estimated loss of 95,000 hectares of irrigated production in the Southern Basin.
• An estimated annual gross value irrigated production loss of more than $500 million from the Southern Basin.
“The Federal Government is gutting Southern Basin irrigation communities with its wrecking ball approach to meeting environmental water volumes that South Australia dictates,” Ms Dalton said.
“Using buybacks to secure those water deliveries to South Australia is not a long term solution to fixing the Coorong, Lower Fake Lakes or the Murray mouth.”
By 2021, 4623GL of water had been recovered for the environment by state and commonwealth governments.
Of the Basin Plan’s 2750GL target, a recovery target of 2289GL was set to source entitlements from the Southern Basin to meet a three-year rolling average target of 2000GL to be delivered to the Coorong, Lower Lakes and Murray Mouth (CLLMM).
Ms Dalton said of the water recovered under the Basin Plan, about 83 per cent has come from the Southern Basin, with southern NSW contributing a significant proportion of this.
“Before any further water is recovered through buybacks for the environment, the government needs to figure out how exactly they plan on delivering it,” Ms Dalton said.
“I’ll be very interested in how the committee responds to the numerous opinions and experiences of the many stakeholders who have made their written submissions and will be attending these sessions.
“I also hope the state government takes the information on board, look to the many alternatives I have provided, and finally puts a stop to buybacks.”
The Deniliquin hearing will be held today at the Deniliquin Town Hall, starting at 11.30am and concluding about 6pm.
It is believed a hearing will also be held in Moama, but to date nothing has been formally scheduled.
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