Irrigators fishing for new CEO

Federal Agriculture Minister Barnaby Joyce unveiled the appointment last week of Matt Barwick as national coordinator of the $15 million Control Plan.

Mr Chesson has worked in a number of political and media roles over the past two decades including being a former senior advisor to the Nationals MP and former Shadow Agriculture Minister John Cobb.

He started at the NIC in late 2011 and has been outspoken in tackling several high profile agricultural issues including implementation of the Murray Darling Basin Plan and escalating electricity prices, to safeguard negative economic and social impacts on farmers and their communities.

It’s understood he will be the Carp program’s communications coordinator working alongside Mr Barwick.

NIC Chair Gavin McMahon informed his members of Mr Chesson’s departure with the search for a new CEO now underway and the role being advertised.

“Tom has been a fantastic advocate for the irrigation Industry in both water and energy policy,” Mr McMahon said.

“I would like to thank him for his dedication and commitment to our organisation.

“I also wish him success in the next stage of his career and am sure if he takes the same energy and passion to his new position he will be successful in achieving outcomes for his new employer.”

Mr Chesson said he’d decided after five years with the NIC that it was time to move on to a job where being successful would result in death, of carp under the eradication program, on a scale not seen since the introduction of Myxomatosis.

He said it was his firm belief that the successful introduction of the Carp Herpes Virus would be one of the greatest environmental outcomes seen “in our lifetime and as such I am very keen to be part of it”.

“I will be joining Matt Barwick at the Carp Commission and working over the next two and a half years in getting the virus up to the point of release here in Australia,” he said.

“Whilst I have no doubt that the virus will work, it will not be as effective as it can be if there are not ‘complimentary measures’ undertaken.

“There is no doubt that native fish will never recover to the levels being sort via the billions of dollars being spent to implement the Basin Plan if carp, cold water pollution, fish ways, habitat restoration and restocking are not part of the Sustainable Diversion Limit offset mechanism.”

Mr Chesson maintained his staunch stance on the Basin Plan’s potential threats to the farm sector saying irrigators and their communities had been “put through the ringer” by what he considered to be a very poor public policy approach.

He said the Plan’s “just add water” approach would ultimately fail and communities were “already the poorer for it”.

“Communities were promised ‘adaptive management’ and ‘localism’ had been hardwired in to the Basin Plan, yet to date they hadn’t seen examples of it,” he said.

“The 2016 Spring floods comprehensively showed just how flawed the modelling is that underpins the Basin Plan.

“It is time for an honest appraisal at what can and can’t be delivered in the real world.”

“Whilst the National Irrigators’ Council is no shrinking violet when it comes to standing up for their communities, it has proven that it can do what governments too often can’t, that is produced sound, pragmatic policy positions which deliver real world triple bottom line outcomes across state boundaries.”

Mr Chesson said irrigators were the key to managing the risks associated with Climate Change.

He said it had been an honour to work with the most innovative and progressive farmers in the world whose dedication to their communities, the environment and ly growing the nation’s economy was second to none.

Last week Mr Joyce announced the Carp Plan would be developed by the Fisheries Research Development Corporation (FRDC), with the next step being to evaluate the benefit of biological control, through the use of a species-specific virus

He said the extensively qualified Mr Barwick, dubbed ‘the Carpinator’, would head up the plan’s development, in conjunction with the FRDC, to be finalised by the end of 2018.

“Trained in environmental science with years of experience and extensive networks in fisheries research and management in both the government and non-government sectors, Matt is perfectly placed to take on the role as ‘Carpinator’ to coordinate and develop this important program,” Mr Joyce said.

“Matt will work with a range of state and federal government departments, as well as non-government stakeholders including researchers, industry and environmental organisations, recreational fishers, Indigenous and community groups, tourism operators and landholders to develop the plan.

“CSIRO, NSW Department of Primary Industries and the Invasive Animals CRC have put in years of work to assess this biological control measure, the carp herpes virus, to put a stop to the pest.”

Mr Joyce said Carp can cause damage of up to $500m per year by lowering water quality of domestic and irrigation water supplies, damaging wetlands, impacting upon agriculture, commercial and recreational fisheries, regional tourism industries, and harming native fish populations and river health.