Agriculture and Water Resources Assistant Minister Anne Ruston will aim to water down the political stoush on proposed changes to the Murray-Darling Basin Plan, saying she would organise a meeting with Agriculture Minister Barnaby Joyce and SA Water Minister Ian Hunter.
Ms Ruston told the Stock Journal she met with Mr Joyce on Tuesday night.
“We both made the decision that we’d not perpetuate this silly storm that’s going on about the issue,” she said.
The argument stems from a letter written by Mr Joyce to Mr Hunter, stating there would be problems delivering an additional 450gL of water to SA while not harming river communities.
“The plan was settled at 2750gL and subsequent to that, there was a separate agreement struck among the states to get the plan across the line that said ‘by 2024, we needed to achieve an additional 450gL of water returned to the environment’,” Ms Ruston said.
“That water was conditional. It could only be achieved if there was no detrimental impact to the river communities from securing it and it had to come from willing sellers or state government projects.”
Mr Hunter has not budged, telling the Stock Journal anything less than 3200gL would not be accepted.
“Scientists told us we need 3200gL of water recovered at a bare minimum to ensure the future health of the River Murray,” he said.
“Any chopping off of little bits here and there is not going to be accepted.
“The 450gL has got to be delivered by 2024. The problem is Barnaby Joyce is saying that can never be done.”
Mr Hunter claimed Mr Joyce had his eyes on the $1.77 billion allocated to buy 450gL for the River Murray’s environmental health.
“There’s $1.77b allocated through the legislation for this agreement and that’s to go to on-farm efficiencies and other water recovery.
“We’ve been promised 3200gL, it’s been legislated for, we’ve allocated the appropriate money – $13b all up for this plan to be delivered and we’re not going to let Barnaby Joyce try and get his hands on that money.
“We want to make sure that money is invested into our irrigators so they can be more efficient and, at the same time, return water to the River Murray to sustain it for the longer term.”
Ms Ruston told parliament on Tuesday they were not moving away from the 450gL target, but it was becoming increasingly obvious there were challenges in being able to deliver the water without having detrimental impacts on river communities.
Ahead of organising a meeting with Mr Hunter, she said nothing would be achieved by having “public slinging matches” and by refusing to speak to each other.
“It’s incumbent on all of us to make sure we don’t undermine a landmark agreement that occurred when the plan was signed in the first place, and to deliver on it,” she said.
- To review the proposed basin plan amendments and to have your say visit mdba.gov.au
