Plibersek wants more water taken from rural communities for South Australia

The Nationals say this must first pass socio-economic tests

Nationals NSW Minister for Lands and Water, Kevin Anderson (pictured) was in Hay recently, hot on the heels of recently appointed Federal Minister for Water and Environment, Tanya Plibersek on a fly-over to familiarise herself with the Murray Darling Basin Plan.

As a former journalist, Mr Anderson called into The Grazier office to look through the pages of one of the oldest newspapers in NSW and also to talk to staff about the detrimental effect the plan has had on small communities and farmers.

Mr Anderson’s mission is to ensure the viability of rural and regional communities within the Basin and to secure enough water for farmers to continue their efforts in providing enough food and fibre for Australia and for export.

He believes water-saving measures must pass socio-economic tests.

However, Labor went into the election promising it would deliver the basin plan in full, including delivering 450 gigalitres of environmental water for South Australia.

Following her visit to the area, Ms Plibersek said NSW had been allowed to drift away from the basin plan by the former Coalition government.

"We've got 20 plans we're expecting from New South Wales and so far, only six of them have been submitted. They're three years late," she said.

"It is inexplicable to me that the previous federal government were not pushing harder to see these plans submitted."

The delivery of environmental water to South Australia has been a point of contention for the plan, with upstream states saying it should not come at the expense of their river communities.

Hay suffered one of the largest water losses in the region with 47.2 gigalitres net reduction in water as result of the Murray Darling Basin Plan.

This equates to 20 per cent of the water entitlement available before the water recovery plan was implemented, and has resulted in 24.8 per cent job losses.

Hillston suffered a 30.2 gigalitre loss and Robinvale 42.4 gigalitres.

Last year, the Nationals attempted to rewrite the basin plan in the Senate to alter the requirement to deliver the 450GL.

This was defeated by both the Liberals and Labor.

And while river communities have already suffered enormously through job losses, closures of businesses and reduction in student numbers as people are forced to seek work elsewhere, Ms Plibersek said only two per cent of the required environmental water had been recovered so far.

In response, Mr Anderson said the state would only consider measures to recover environmental water for South Australia if they passed tests endorsed by the Murray-Darling Basin Authority's (MDBA) ministerial council.

"The Liberals and Nationals support growing regional communities, and this can only be done by keeping local economies strong," he said.

“NSW has developed the most rigorous water resource plans of the five basin states.

"The NSW government has resubmitted six plans which address all of the feedback previously provided by the MDBA and we look forward to them being accredited.

"Once these six plans have been accredited, NSW will be in a position to update and resubmit the remaining plans as a matter of priority."

Nationals NSW Minister for Lands and Water, Kevin Anderson