Ruston accuses SA of “absolute lies and scaremongering” on Basin Plan

Speaking to FIVEaa radio in Adelaide yesterday, the SA Liberal Senator condemned offensive language used by SA Water Minister Ian Hunter at a stormy meeting of State and federal counterparts last week in Adelaide.

She also criticised SA Premier Jay Weatherill for being too slow to act in pulling his senior Labor cabinet minister into line for his actions which included an exchange with Labor Victorian Water Minister Lisa Neville, in disputing the 450GLs target.

Tensions overflowed at the meeting chaired by Federal Agriculture and Water Resources Minister Barnaby Joyce, where the practical difficulties of delivering the extra 450GLs in the Basin Plan were being discussed at length.

Asked for an assurance that her home state would not be sold-short on the Basin Plan’s promise to return an extra 450GL’s to the Murray Darling river system, Senator Ruston said “absolutely not”.

She accused SA Labor of playing politics on the issue to attack the federal government which had made her “really furious” and led to her making public statements, providing reassurances on the water delivery target.

Senator Ruston was at the dinner meeting and made a formal complaint to the SA Premier, about Mr Hunter's behaviour.

“Nothing could be further from the truth,” she said in the radio segment in response to allegations SA would be sold-down the river on the Basin Plan’s water delivery targets.

“The Labor party seems to think this is an acceptable thing to scaremonger over - and particularly scare my irrigators that are part of my community in the Riverland - about more water being taken out of the river as a result of the behaviour of the federal government,” she said.

“It’s just absolute lies and scaremongering.

“We have never moved away from our commitment to deliver the Murray Darling Basin Plan in full.

“And so – in the strongest terms – the federal government has got no intention, nor does it have the power, to move away from the delivery of the Murray Darling Basin Plan as legislated.”

Senator Ruston also rejected suggestions Mr Joyce’s appointment to the federal water ministry, after Malcolm Turnbull became PM last year, would impact the Basin Plan’s environmental targets.

She said 2750GL’s of water was due to be returned to the environmental in the Basin Plan and subsequent to that target, the SA government managed to negotiate an extra 450GL’s for the environment, creating a 3200GLs “number”.

The only difference between the two numbers was that the 450GL’s of ‘up-water’ must be returned to the river system in a way that “does not detrimentally impact socially or economically on our river communities”, she said.

Senator Ruston said the 450GLs water delivery had “conditions on it” but the 2750GLs, if needed, can be purchased back from irrigators, if they’re willing sellers.

She said all Mr Joyce was seeking to do last week’s ministerial council meeting - in his responsibility as chair - was talk about the challenges of delivering that 450GL’s without causing detrimental impacts under current programs.

Mr Joyce was saying, ‘let’s sit down at the table and look at alternative ways that we can deliver the promises that the Plan has made, for environmental security’, she said.

But Senator Ruston said she was disappointed in Mr Hunter’s actions because she believed he, like her, was “genuinely” wanted to enter negotiations on how to deliver outcomes.

“I was disappointed he was prepared to play politics,” she said while saying nobody would criticise Mr Hunter for standing up for SA, as she was too.

“What I will criticise the SA government for is not coming to the table and having a mature debate about how we can deliver outcomes, the ones that we want, but without causing massive detrimental impacts on river communities and I think that’s an entirely reasonable thing for me to be expecting the states to be discussing,” she said.

Senator Ruston was asked what occurred inside the meeting and what Mr Hunter said but declined to go into specifics.

“He became quite upset about things and used language I thought was particularly inappropriate,” she said.

“(It) was certainly language that my mother would be decidedly disgusted with me using and I wouldn’t use under those circumstances or any circumstances for that matter.”

Senator Ruston said 150 people heard what the SA water minister had said but Mr Weatherill’s slow and “flippant” response to the issue had reflected poorly on him.

But she was now glad Mr Hunter had apologised for his inappropriate language and stressed there was no cause for alarm over the Basin Plan.

“There is nothing to suggest that we are going to renege on a deal because the one thing that everyone needs to realise is, we can’t,” she said.

“Any decision about any changes or alternations to the Murray Darling Basin Plan or its implementation requires every jurisdiction to agree.

“I’ll work with anyone who’s willing to sit down and have a sensible conversation with me about delivering the outcomes we need for the whole Basin but in particular SA.”

In the same radio segment, Mr Weatherill said Mr Hunter had a reputation for being “blunt” but added his choice of language was inappropriate.

However, he said the minister’s sentiments on the Basin Plan were “entirely appropriate” and every South Australian was entitled to be as angry as Mr Hunter.

He said last week’s meeting went on for a “considerable period of time” with Mr Hunter making sensible points about water reform before the outburst occurred.

Mr Weatherill said the “real story” was that the federal government wanted to “get their hands on” $1.7b in a “statutory locked box” linked to the 450GLs.

He said there were many ways upstream states “can dud us” and they had also “depleted” the river system over time, by taking out too much water.

Mr Weatherill said the 450GLs was “necessary” to the river’s future health and the upstream states “don’t want to give us back the water”, while the policy interests of rice and cotton producers were running water policy through Mr Joyce.

Mr Hunter has denied he used particularly inappropriate language towards his ministerial colleague in Victoria.

At the weekend, Mr Joyce declined to confirm what happened in the ministerial meeting saying he’d leave that to the Victorian Water Minister.

But he said with Labor federal leader Bill Shorten saying he wouldn’t tolerate inappropriate comments, like those made during the recent US presidential election, it was now “time to stand up”.

Former federal Labor Water Minister Tony Burke who was in charge when the Basin Plan was signed into law in 2012 accused Mr Joyce of seeking to “sabotage” the historic water reforms.

“We know that if you start picking at the Plan, the whole plan will start to unravel, and damage to the rivers will follow,” Mr Burke said.

In a letter to Mr Hunter, Mr Joyce said if there was any genuine way of putting the additional 450GLs down the river without hurting people, nobody would have any problem with it but “the reality is that it will”

He also warned that he could not foresee other ministers in other states agreeing that the 450GLs can be delivered “without significant social and economic detriment”.

“The hard conversation has to happen about how we resolve this stalemate,” he wrote.

NSW Irrigators Council (NSWIC) CEO, Mark McKenzie said Mr Hunter was being “incredibly selfish” in his response to talks about the potentially devastating social and economic damage to upstream communities, of the additional 450GLs.

“There has already been totally unacceptable social and economic damage to regional communities in the upstream states, but the SA government wants to heap up even more destruction,” he said.

“We will not be supporting the demands of SA when that means economic vandalism of our Basin communities.

“It is high time that SA began to work collaboratively with the other Basin States on achieving the best possible environmental outcomes and not simply focusing on achieving a flow target - that we now know is not achievable under the provisions of the Plan legislation.”

Murray Group spokesman Graeme Pyle said the SA government was “holding all other Basin states to ransom for no other reason than to spill water out to sea”.

“Going for the extra 450GL regardless of consequence is irresponsible and it is time the other states and the federal government united and called South Australia’s bluff,” he said.