A Productivity Commission hearing in Deniliquin, NSW, into the Murray Darling Basin Plan has been told governments need to stop talking and start taking action on the contentious project.
Treasurer Jim Chalmers has asked the commission to report on the effectiveness of the implementation of the Basin plan for the five years, ending December 19, 2023.
READ MORE: Basin Plan commitments a long way off
He requested the commission find out the extent to which the plan was on track to be delivered, within statutory timeframes.
READ MORE: Help wanted to fulfil plan commitments
Speak Up Campaign chair Shelley Scoullar said a diversity of community members emphasised the human toll of the plan, due to the failure of governments to keep promises of genuine consultation and delivering triple-bottom-line outcomes.
"Unlike other recent federal government representatives, the commissioners did not sneak into town and meet with selected stakeholders in order to tick a consultation box," Mrs Scoullar said.
"Instead, the commission heard about the true feelings and impacts to our communities."
Wakool River Association chair John Lolicato said the time for listening, and not taking action, must end.
He requested the commission collate a public report, after carrying out a comprehensive literature review of all the social and economic studies and reports that had been commissioned into the plan.
Mr Lolicato also requested a comprehensive review of the modelling that set the targets and goals of the plan, more than 11 years ago.
"The two major floods of 2016 and 2023 have proven that the targets and goals that have been set are unrealistic," he said.
There was also a need to publicly confirm the actual volume of water owned by environmental holders and the need for more to be accumulated.
"The PC made a number of recommendations following the last review five years ago, what percentage have been implemented and what were the ones that have not been dealt with?" he said.
"The majority of our community members have lost trust and confidence in the engagement process we would hope that the PC would help to facilitate the responses from the Water Minister's council (MINCo) and other relevant government agencies."
He said environmental water holders already owned 4,622.5 gigalitres of water entitlements and there must be an assessment of what could be used and delivered before further water was recovered.
"The social fabric of regional communities, particularly in the section of river which has the greatest complexity of delivering these volumes, is being broken," he said.
"If the federal government does not want us to exist anymore, then it needs to come out and say so and stop treating us as second class citizens."
National Irrigators Council chairman Jeremy Morton, who attended the meeting, said there was a sense that those affected were feeling jaded about the number of reviews of the plan and actual outcomes.
Questions were asked about the results of last statutory review the Productivity Commission conducted, he said.
"I think you might find there was actually very little implementation of the recommendations," he said.
"This, as a statutory review, is built into the whole process of implementation of the Basin Plan.
"You might choose to ignore the others; this one you shouldn't - that's why it was built in, in the first place."
But he said many at the meeting were feeling cynical about the process.
"It's all the same stuff that everyone has heard before, everyone has said it before, but there was a real sense of 'here we are again'," he said.
He said there appeared to be little faith things were going to change and the meeting appealed to the commission to make sure something did happen.
"[The feeling was] we have been here too often, and it all just gets ignored," he said.
There was a level of "consultation fatigue and exasperation.
"There's been well over 100 reviews of implementation and impacts - and yet, there's been very little change in response.
"Having engaged with the new government, I am very cynical that they are just running down the clock, to the point where they can just enter the market and buy a whole lot of water.
"The elements of the plan that were supposed to be delivered haven't been, and the default is buybacks."
He said the one glimmer of hope was over feedback on the recovery of a further 450 gigalitres of environmental water, through projects that reduce water losses through irrigation, commercial use and public water supply infrastructure.
"That's something the minister has called for," he said
"If she turns around and ignores all of that, surely she has to be held accountable for continually ignoring consultation."
Andrew Miller
I'm a general reporter with Stock & Land, with a special interest in irrigation issues. I completed my cadetship, with the Age, in 1980. Over my career, I've worked for ABC radio news (Mt Isa, Qld) and at provincial and suburban newspapers.
I'm a general reporter with Stock & Land, with a special interest in irrigation issues. I completed my cadetship, with the Age, in 1980. Over my career, I've worked for ABC radio news (Mt Isa, Qld) and at provincial and suburban newspapers.
