The Murray Regional Strategy Group, representing community and farming organisations in the NSW Murray Valley, is calling on NSW Premier Chris Minns to take a strong stance in opposing buybacks.
It has sought a meeting with Mr Minns and NSW Water Minister Rose Jackson to explain the potential impact of buybacks and the alternative solutions that can help NSW retain productivity, while at the same time achieving environmental objectives.
MRSG chair Geoff Moar said his organisation was buoyed by the strong Victorian stance on buybacks and has asked for similar definitive action from the NSW Government.
It also wants the NSW and Victorian Governments to take a united approach that calls for South Australia to play a greater role in Basin Plan implementation, instead of leaving upstream states to carry the burden of water recovery.
“We need our premier and water minister to get a better understanding of the impacts in the New South Wales Murray region of buybacks, which have previously cost thousands of jobs across Southern Basin communities,” Mr Moar said.
“They need to hear from those who will suffer more community pain, and hopefully acknowledge that this unnecessary social and economic destruction in our region is totally unacceptable.”
Mr Moar said recovering the suggested volumes and storing the water for so-called environmental purposes totally defies logic, as the amounts proposed will not fit down the system without causing considerable flooding to public and private lands, causing more infrastructure damage.
“It is a physical impossibility to fit 10 litres of water in a five litre bucket.
“Likewise, you cannot send, for example, 50,000 megalitres a day down a system that can only hold 30,000 megalitres.
“So apart from appeasing city-based environmentalists with limited understanding of water management, what’s the point?”
Mr Moar said NSW Murray communities are acutely aware that Federal Water Minister Tanya Plibersek is “playing with our livelihoods” for political purposes, and these NSW residents desperately need the support of their premier.
He also emphasised the need for pressure to be applied by the NSW and Victorian Governments to insist South Australia starts becoming part of the Basin Plan solution process and not be allowed to get off “scot-free” from contributing to environmental outcomes.
This could include utilising its desalination plant to reduce the amount of water it needs from upstream dams, as well as looking at solutions for the Lower Lakes, which evaporate nearly 1,000 gigalitres (equivalent of two Sydney Harbours) each year.
“These lakes were historically estuarine.
“It makes no sense to destroy upstream natural environments to maintain artificial freshwater lakes near the end of the system.
“With appropriate infrastructure works in South Australia we can reduce their reliance of upstream storages, which will save massive volumes in evaporation and transmission losses and benefit the entire basin.
“There are a vast range of solutions to Basin Plan issues, but they should not include water buybacks, which are nothing other than a lazy way of providing the federal water minister with political expediency that will cost many jobs and force up the price of food for all Australians at the supermarket.
“Unfortunately, Ms Plibersek has made it a tough decision for the New South Wales Government. It either has to stand firm, insist on the best approach to the Basin Plan which includes rejecting buybacks; or it can kowtow to its federal colleagues.
“We strongly encourage the former path,” Mr Moar said.
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