The Victorian Coalition Government will not agree to a Murray Darling Basin Plan that is not in the best interests of Victoria and does not deliver a balanced outcome for the environment, the socio-economic issues and a balance between the states, Minister for Water, Peter Walsh, told Parliament.
Responding to a question from The Nationals Member for Murray Valley, Tim McCurdy, Minister Walsh said Victoria had engaged constructively in the Basin Plan debate.
But, we have put the Murray Darling Basin Authority and the Commonwealth Water Minister, Tony Burke, on notice that the Authority needs to take account of the ministerial consensus document of July 9 and the consensus document of August 27, when putting those issues into a future plan, he said.
Minister Walsh said Victoria’s key concern is lack of an adjustment mechanism for sustainable diversion limit offsets and the benchmark modeling that underpins that. The Victorian Government is firmly of the view that you can achieve 650 gigalitres of environmental offsets by environmental works and measures and you can achieve good outcomes for the lower lakes with 2100 gigalitres of held entitlements.
Another key issue is the apportionment of water recovered between the basin states, the Minister said. We firmly believe that should be apportioned on a historical-use percentage basis.
South Australia expects all the outcomes but will not make a fair contribution to a future basin plan. It is interesting the South Australian Premier, Jay Weatherill, will spend $2 million of his taxpayers money on an advertising campaign pushing Victorians to support the South Australian view, but will not engage in a proper process to achieve a good outcome and make a contribution from South Australia.
Mr Walsh said the Government also had major concerns about constraints management. From a constraints management point of view this is a very simple argument: to get the water down the river without flooding private land.
The Murray Darling Basin Authority has not yet done the work to determine if it can get the water down the river without flooding private property and leaving a Victorian water authority or a Victorian government open to litigation because people have been deliberately flooded out through the environmental water manager’s use of environmental water, he said.
From Victoria’s point of view, we want to work constructively to get a basin plan. If a basin plan cannot be achieved, the sun will come out, the world will not end. We will revert to managing the basin, as has been done for decades, in a constructive way.
The states will work with the Commonwealth, rather than Canberra taking a dictatorial attitude that does not take account of the states’ interests.
The key message is that we are working in the best interests of our economy, the communities of northern Victoria and the irrigation sector that underpins their economies, Mr Walsh concluded.
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