New South Wales has become the third key state to reject the federal government’s proposed plan to save the Murray-Darling Basin, slamming the plan yesterday as ”blunt and simplistic” in the wake of similar hostility from Victoria and South Australia.
NSW will today release its formal response to the Commonwealth’s draft plan to return 2750 billion litres of irrigation water a year back to the environment. In a statement ahead of the release, NSW Deputy Premier Andrew Stoner said the plan was ”unacceptable in its current form”, stepping up the pressure on the federal government to steer a way through the political stand-off.
The remarks follow comments this week from Victorian Water Minister Peter Walsh saying the plan developed by the independent Murray-Darling Basin Authority did not clearly describe or justify what it was trying to do with the billions of extra litres. ”It has also refused to seriously explore ways to achieve environmental outcomes with less water and consequently, far less impact on regional communities,” he said.
The three key Murray-Darling states have turned against the plan in its current form. Victoria believes too much water is being taken from irrigators, while South Australia, which is concerned about salinity and the environmental impact on the Murray mouth and Lower Lakes, believes the plan does not go far enough.
A group of 60 scientists yesterday blasted the ”lack of transparency” in the draft plan, warning that the 2750 billion litres ”falls short of meeting all the targets … to protect key natural assets and ecosystem functions”.
