NSW and Victoria have outsmarted the Commonwealth and shortchanged the environment, says former Commonwealth Environmental Water Holder (CEWH) David Papps.
Mr Papps was referring to a deal signed by Basin state governments on Friday to lock-in the method to recover the 450 gigalitres of so-called ‘upwater’ for the environment across the Murray Darling Basin.
“I’m sure it’s all legally valid, but it was done in bad faith,” said Mr Papps, who retired from the public service in January.
“It (the deal) was cleverly crafted to minimise the legal water recovery requirement under the Basin Plan.”
The Ministerial Council (Minco) of federal and state water ministers signed an agreement that means water recovery would not have a negative impact on local economies, some of which are already struggling under the impact of water recovery.
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Now any water recovery, be it through buybacks or infrastructure schemes, must be tested against socio-economic impact to ensure any irrigation reductions don’t result in job losses or cultural harm at a local, regional and state level.
The Minco deal means water saving projects will contribute to the 450 gigalitres ‘upwater’ component of the Basin Plan, with initiatives focused lining irrigation channels, reducing water leaks in Basin cities and installing meters to better manage consumption.
Mr Papps said the new criteria would likely mean no more irrigation entitlements will be transferred to the environment, and what water is recovered through in-stream infrastructure and urban works would be contingent on seasonal factors.
“The new criteria has more hoops and hurdles than you could imagine for entitlements to be recovered,” Mr Papps said.
A key objective of water recovery was to give the CEWH water that can be traded and is available in sufficient quantity when it’s needed, Mr Papps said.
“The foundation principal behind the Basin Plan was that the environment, represented by CEWH, had access to water entitlements in the same way irrigators do, with the same sense of certainty that gives you.
“Who knows what water will come from the urban projects and any other off-farm initiatives.”
Mr Papps said the Basin Plan was designed to empower the Commonwealth as lead water manager, but the Minco deal cedes power to the states.
“David Littleproud has vacated the field, NSW and Victoria are running the show, and they have white-washed the plan.”
Communities across the Basin have campaigned against further on-farm recovery, warning politicians reducing irrigation would cripple struggling regional economies.
Federal Water Minister David Littleproud said the new socio-economic test was “the last major piece” of the Basin Plan.
“Nothing kills investment, farms, businesses, relationships and communities like lack of certainty,” Mr Littleproud siad
“Communities up and down the Basin have certainty and I hope life can finally return to normal.”
With the deal in place, the only Basin Plan wildcard left is what a future Labor government may do when in power.
Labor’s water spokesman and Basin Plan architect, Tony Burke, warned against changes that compromise the original intended environmental benefits.
The state ministers argue they aren’t changing the definition, but rather adding missing detail.
Mr Burke said any change to upwater recovery should be accompanied by new environmental measures.
“Change one part of it and there is a risk that everything else will unravel,” Mr Burke said.
“It is true that the socio-economic test is restrictive, but so is the environmental test.
“It would be disingenuous for there to be a change in definition of a socio-economic test without there being an equal and opposite reaction in how the environmental test is determined.”
Upwater explained
Upwater is a particular bucket of water to be recovered from consumptive use and put back into the environment, to water wetlands and to contribute to overall flows.
It comes on top of the 2750GL bucket of downwater, which includes 605GL of water savings through large-scale infrastructure works like weirs, pumping stations and so on.
Prior to Friday’s Minco meeting, upwater could be gained through on-farm sources - namely the Commonwealth tendering for voluntary buybacks of irrigation water - or from off-farm sources such as channel upgrades, pipelines, recycled stormwater, or industrial water capture.
Now only off-farm sources are likely to pass the new socio-economic criteria.
Critics of the Minco deal argue too much water comes to the environment through improved infrastructure.
Initial plans assumed upwater would come from on-farm schemes funded by the Commonwealth, where farmers swap water entitlements for infrastructure funding so they can use their remaining water more efficiently.
But job losses mounted as the Basin Plan rolled on, making for tougher times in local communities, adding to scrutiny on the the current criteria which calculates socio-economic impacts on a farm-by-farm basis.
This story has been altered to correct an error. It originally said David Papps resigned from the public service, when in fact he retired in January.
