FARMING groups have backed Agriculture and Water Resources Minister Barnaby Joyce in reacting savagely to the federal Labor Opposition’s threat to “blow up” the Murray Darling Basin Plan by foreshadowing legislative upheaval.
Last week former Federal Water Minister Tony Burke warned he would push for new amendments to change controversial and sensitive aspects of the Basin Plan, which he originally oversaw being signed into law in late 2012, in the vexed hung parliament.
During a speech in parliament on a house-keeping bill, Mr Burke – now the Shadow Water Minister – said the amendments would be moved, unless Mr Joyce guaranteed he would deliver the Basin Plan in full by making sure that the 450 gigalitres due for South Australia was “as significant” as 650GLs of intended down-water environmental flows.
“Unless he can step back from his argument that the 450GLs is undeliverable by refusing to quote the entirety of the plan, Labor will have no choice, when this bill reaches the Senate, but to move an amendment to the Water Act which says, 'You cannot get the full 650 gigalitres unless the 450 is delivered as well’,” he said.
“We are having that amendment drafted now - I want to be in a situation where we do not have to move it.
“But if the Deputy Prime Minister keeps on his current course, misrepresenting the plan and pretending he can deliver half a plan and say it is the whole plan, Labor will have no choice.”
Mr Burke also accused Mr Joyce of misrepresenting the intent of the plan by failing to read the legislation in full, to justify his arguments about the 450GLs.
But Mr Joyce said Mr Burke wrote the Basin Plan originally and was now threatening to make changes without consulting any of the Basin States to gain their agreement, which was pivotal to the entire process.
“The problem I’ve have is I’ve got to try and enact Tony Burke’s plan,” he said.
“So if he’s coming up with a new idea to amend his plan, he knows the amendment will blow up the plan because you’ve got to get the agreement of all the states and they’re not going to agree with it.
“It needs the Wisdom of Solomon to get these people together and he knows full well the more petrol he pours on it, the less likely the plan will complete – surely he can understand that.”
Mr Joyce said he helped Mr Burke guide the Plan through parliament “when it was such a fiasco” and he was the Shadow Water Minister, at the time it was being debated and devised in the hung parliament.
“I said I’ll give you a hand to try and land this and even suggested some key people,” he said.
Mr Joyce said he hoped Mr Burke would resist playing politics with the Basin Plan; a strategy which could come back to haunt him, in future.
“He’s always got to keep it up his sleeve that if Labor wins the next election it becomes his problem, so don’t create problems for your-self,” he said.
The NSW Irrigators Council (NSWIC) said the proposed amendments foreshadowed by Mr Burke could “wreck” any chance of delivering the Plan outcomes.
NSWIC CEO Mark McKenzie said the federal Opposition’s position wasn’t really helping South Australia, if that was their intention.
“If they continue to push for the purchase of the 450GLs of additional water recovery as absolutely non-negotiable it is almost certain that the upstream States will walk away from implementing the rest of the Basin Plan because the Labor amendments would fundamentally alter what was agreed by the States in 2012,” he said.
“That would be a spectacular ‘own goal’ for South Australia.
“As Water Minister at the time of the Basin Plan being enacted Tony Burke is well aware of the detail of the Plan, which says that the additional 450GLs of special environmental account water (known as the ‘up water’) cannot be recovered if it has negative social and economic impacts in the Basin – not just on irrigators but also on their communities.
“There has already been significant economic damage to regional communities in the Basin and NSWIC believes more water cannot be recovered without causing even deeper damage to regional economies.”
Mr McKenzie said the NSWIC fully supported the NSW Water Minister Niall Blair who responded to Mr Burke’s statements by indicating that NSW would review its support for the Plan, if the proposed amendments were to proceed.
Southern Riverina Irrigators chairman Graeme Pyle said his reaction to Mr Burke’s proposal was “stunned disbelief coupled with extreme disappointment”.
Mr Pyle said Mr Burke’s proposed amendments were “a political stunt” that shows he doesn’t understand Basin communities and has obviously not followed the Basin Plan’s implementation.
He said the proposed amendments, forcing recovery of an additional 450GLs, had the potential to decimate Basin communities which were already struggling under the weight of the plan’s bias towards the environment.
“Is it any wonder that democracy around the world is being overtaken by people outside the political system?” he said.
“It is these horrible games being played by city-based career politicians who do not seem to care about regional prosperity that people have had a gutful of.”
Mr Pyle said Mr Burke’s legislation clearly stated the additional 450GLs above the 2750GLs baseline target would only be recovered without adverse socio-economic impacts.
He said that was in keeping with the promise from politicians throughout the entire process that the plan would achieve ‘triple bottom line’ outcomes, equally caring for people, economies and the environment.
“I would plead with Mr Burke to deliver on the commitment he made to us in 2012 – the additional 450GLs must not have further adverse socio-economic impact on our communities,” he said.
“We do not think that is too much to ask.”
Liberal Democrats Senator David Leyonhjelm who chaired an inquiry into the Basin Plan during the previous parliament said Mr Burke would become “public enemy number one” to rural communities after indicating he wanted to take a further 450GLs of water each year out of the Murray Darling and send it down the river to South Australia.
Senator Leyonhjelm said taking that much water – roughly equivalent to the volume of water in Sydney Harbour – would cripple communities that have already made it abundantly clear they are hurting.
He said Mr Burke’s call to take more water from the system was “outrageous” and unlikely it could even be delivered because the river system does not have the capacity.”
Senator Leyonhjelm said the government had not yet responded to last year’s report from the Basin Plan inquiry, including recommendations that there be no more water buybacks, that there should be a full assessment of the social and economic impacts of the Plan, and a cost benefit analysis of the various options.