
MEDIA RELEASE: Leyonhjelm tells South Australia to sue the sun
South Australia should stop bleating about water that does not belong to them, Liberal Democrats Senator David Leyonhjelm said today.
25th July 2017
Last night’s ABC Four Corners program alleged there was water theft and meter tampering along the Barwon-Darling river system in NSW.
While any such breaches of water licences should be investigated, Senator Leyonhjelm said South Australia’s claim it is being dudded out of water by NSW irrigators was complete nonsense.
“We’re looking at a maximum of 3GLs allegedly stolen by some irrigators, while thousands of kilometres further down river 900GLs evaporates from South Australia’s artificially fresh Lower Lakes every year,” said Senator Leyonhjelm, who chaired the 2015/16 Senate Select Committee on the Murray Darling Basin Plan.
“If the likes of Nick Xenophon, the Greens and Ian Hunter (South Australia’s Water Minister) found a way to prosecute the sun for water theft on a grand scale, it would be no less irrational..
“Until then, South Australia should quit whingeing. If water theft has occurred it is a loss to neighbouring irrigators in NSW — irrigators whose communities have been cruelly punished by the Murray Darling Basin Plan.
“Ensuring that water reaches South Australia only to evaporate is of no benefit to the environment whatsoever.”
Watch Senator Leyonhjelm’s YouTube video explaining water use in the Murray-Darling Basin here
For Media enquiries contact: Kelly Burke 0408 734 586

