MEDIA RELEASE www.mgcc-nsw.org 12 December 2011

Basin Plan proponents fail to see irony The ABC’s 7.30 Report last night (11/01/12) highlighted the irony of Basin Plan proponents who say taking water from irrigators will protect the system from drought. Hayden Cooper’s report1, primarily on the difficulties faced by the Coalition to manage their position on the Basin Plan, showed how entrenched the opinion that irrigators rather than the weather are the cause of the problems in the Murray Darling Basin and how little some people understand the realities of the drought and water management. “Today the mouth of the Murray River is a picture of health. Water is flowing again, the fish are back and so are the tourists. It’s a far cry from the dry years of the past decade,” Hayden Cooper reported. “The irony is that today irrigators in New South Wales also have access to water and have planted the largest areas of crops in years whereas during the ‘dry years of the past decade’, these farmers had little to zero allocations and next to zero crops were planted - especially in our region,” Murray Group of Concerned Communities Chairman, Bruce Simpson said. “If irrigators were the reason that the Lower Lakes fell below sea level you would think that would be happening now when they are irrigating, not during the drought when irrigated production fell dramatically. Mr Simpson is concerned about the apparent misconception that irrigators, particularly broadacre irrigators who predominantly hold general or low security water entitlements kept watering crops during the drought. “The NSW allocation system doesn’t let that happen,” Mr Simpson said. “When water is scarce, (general security) allocations are low – or zero at the peak of the last drought. Annual or broadacre farmers don’t plant crops if they don’t have water.” “It may be cheeky to point out that at the same time Adelaide’s reliance on the Murray River for its water supplies rose to 90% compared to 40% in a normal rainfall period2,” Mr Simpson said Much of the water purchased by the Commonwealth Government in the NSW Murray area is the same general security entitlement product held by farmers that fell to zero water allocation during the drought. “At the peak of the drought the Commonwealth effectively owned paper that could not provide any extra flows to South Australia. “This is why environmental works and measures are so important because they are designed to get water to where it is needed without relying on massive flow events that just don’t happen most years. “We will have drought again and we will have flood again. What we need to do is manage the environment and the water in between and that can be done with the entitlements the Government currently holds if they use works and measures,” Mr Simpson said. ENDS: For further information contact Bruce Simpson on 0429 681 317 1

http://www.abc.net.au/7.30/content/2012/s3406338.htm Adelaide’s 2010 Water Consumption, Press Release, Premier Mike Ran, 4 January 2011 2

The MGCC represents the Central Murray region of 33,000 people who are passionate about living and working in these regional and rural communities. The Central Murray communities have already given 20 per cent of water entitlements to the environment.