Murray-Darling Basin Plan: 1% science, 99% politics

The Millennium Drought led some to conclude that drought was the new normal and the environment was facing catastrophe.

The drought ended with widespread flooding. Dorothea Mackellar’s Australia, a land of droughts and flooding rains, was never better demonstrated.

However, during the drought a plan was devised to remove water from agriculture to ‘save’ the environment.

The result was 1% science and 99% politics.

The plan calls for the ‘return’ of 2,750 GL of water to the environment with a further 450 GL to be returned subject to certain conditions. Since it began in 2012, water rights have been purchased from farmers in Queensland, NSW and Victoria, plus a small quantity from SA.

In the last parliament I chaired a Senate inquiry into its effects, with hearings in each of the participating states.

We found the loss of irrigation water was hurting rural communities. Farms no longer grew irrigated crops such as fruit or pasture. They required far fewer inputs and generated far less income. Workers had lost their jobs and moved away. Regional communities had fewer school children, volunteer fire fighters and customers in local shops.

We also found a very poor understanding of the plan. Many people had an almost religious belief that the environment simply needs water irrespective of whether it is in the right place at the right time, or in the right quantities.

It was even worse in South Australia. Its outrage over allegations that water is being misappropriated from the Darling and Barwon rivers in NSW is ridiculous, given that these rivers often run dry and only about 6% of the water in these two rivers ever gets to SA.

Perhaps the most disturbing aspect of the inquiry was hearing how 900 GL of the water taken from productive agriculture in Victoria and NSW, evaporates in Lake Alexandrina and Lake Albert in SA.

If Lake Alexandrina was allowed to remain open to the sea and subject to tidal influences, rather than being kept closed by man-made barrages, it could be seawater that evaporates, not fresh. Preserving an artificial environment at the expense of farming and rural communities seems very poor public policy.

The Murray Darling Basin Plan was conceived in panic and is seriously flawed.

Its intentions are laudable, but it is not holy writ.

There is enormous scope for improvement.

Liberal Democrats

Liberal Democrats

Former Senator David Leyonhjelm

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Liberal Democrats

Liberal Democrats

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