Are there anomalies in the Murray-Darling Basin Plan?
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Inverell’s Mal Peters thinks so and he believes they could eventually bring down the entire $12.7 billion strategy.
It is not just the financial cost of reforming the plan, which outlines the management of water resources, which concerns Mr Peters.
He is also concerned about the stress another water reform process will cause the people and farmers who are among the two million Australians dependent on the river system that enables 40 percent of the nation’s agricultural production.
Mr Peters is an Inverell Shire councillor and grazier based west of Ashford but his stake in the Murray-Darling Basin Plan relates to his recent former roles as head of the Farmers Association NSW and as chair of the Murray-Darling Basin Authority's Northern Basin Advisory committee.
He joined the advisory committee, hoping to make what was then a third effort at water reform, the last one.
But unique rules emerged in one of the seven valleys making up the NSW part of the plan – the Barwon-Darling river.
“There’s a seasonal pattern in the river levels that means it runs low, or the bed is dry, about one in every three years,” Mr Peters said.
“But the license allowance [in the Barwon-Darling river] is calculated on the average flow over 100 years and it isn’t adjusted for seasonal variations. That allows for massive water extraction in years of low flows.”
Similarly, the legal size of the water extraction pumps in the same area were increased from pumps that were six inches to pumps that were 28 inches.
These changes were introduced to in 2012 after the draft plan went on public display and before it was approved by the NSW Government.
“No one knows why they were changed so drastically in favour of a few irrigators,” Mr Peters said.
“Every valley has its rules but it was only in the Barwon-Darling that these problems emerged.”
Added to claims, from other sources, of possible water metre tampering and inappropriate sharing of government information in the same area, Mr Peters’ believes a fourth round of water reforms may be inevitable.
