People first, river second, PM and premiers agree

Stephanie Peatling
November 8, 2006
SMH

DRAINING wetlands and cutting environmental flows to the Murray-Darling river system will be considered by a team of public servants ordered by state and territory leaders to find ways to guarantee towns, farmers and irrigators do not run out of water.

A meeting between the Prime Minister, John Howard, and four state leaders yesterday heard the drought was much worse than a one-in-100-year event; it was more like one in 1000 years.
But scientists and environmentalists say the needs of the river system must be considered alongside those of the people relying on its water.

Professor Gary Jones, the head of the Co-operative Research Centre for Freshwater Ecology, said: "Whilst I recognise these are tough times for everyone concerned, we have to be careful because it won't do any good to damage the river system in the long term."

The executive director of the Australian Conservation Foundation, Don Henry, said any decision to forgo water for environmental purposes would be a "total admission of failure despite years and years of warning".

"We have to look after farmers that are suffering but the really crucial thing is we have to speed up work to bring the Murray-Darling back to health," he said.

After yesterday's summit, permanent water trading between NSW, Victoria and South Australia will begin on January 1 next year. The leaders said this would free up water by dealing with the problem of overallocation of water licences. They agreed to work out how to secure water supplies for 2007-08. A group of state and federal public servants was asked to draw up plans for how this will be done. It will report back by the middle of December.

Mr Howard said he would not direct them to consider specific proposals but "it will be apparent what some of the options are, including the draining of wetlands and allowing some of the dams to dry up. They will be considered. The purpose is to get a warts-and-all action plan. It's serious and we all understand that."

Water efficiency measures and alternative water source projects, such as desalination, will be prioritised when the Federal Government hands out funds from its $2 billion National Water Initiative.

But Mr Howard rejected a suggestion that significant amounts of water could be freed up if Queensland's Cubbie Station was bought out. "While it might be an attractive subject for media focus and debate and interest, the idea that Cubbie Station is the silver bullet is nonsense," Mr Howard said.

A scientific report, commissioned by a similar group of ministers in 2002, found 1500 gigalitres of water - enough to fill Sydney Harbour three times - was needed to address the decline of the whole Murray-Darling system. A meeting of ministers the following year agreed to find a third of that water to sustain five key environmental sites along the river system, but none of that water has yet been returned to the river.

Now the scientific research body CSIRO will prepare regular reports on the sustainable yields of the Murray-Darling basin's surface and groundwater systems.

The Premier of Victoria, Steve Bracks, said: "The figures we've used for an average water flow are not the figures that will be required in the future. This is drought upon drought upon low water reserves. Effectively, if we use the 100-year average, we are not representing what's happening with the effect of climate change and the low water flows and stream flows which are occurring."

The federal Opposition's water spokesman, Anthony Albanese, said water needed to be considered alongside climate change. "We must draw a line in the parched earth - no more denial, no more delay, no more procrastination."