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Not long ago it could be argued that the just-approved, multi-million dollar, riverside development at Mannum in South Australia’s Murraylands would be a welcome initiative; the 570 new residential allotments and 150-berth houseboat marina providing a much-needed economic boost for that regional community

However, that was in the good old bad old days. Now even the most unobservant Australian can see all too clearly the widespread effects of our overexploitation of the Murray-Darling river system.

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Yesterday’s statement by National Water Commission CEO, Ken Matthews, that water desalination has a major role to play in Australia’s water future, raises more questions about the priorities of our peak water body. In issuing his media release, Mr Matthews appears to be endorsing a process which has yet to be proven environmentally-benign under Australian conditions, whilst his Commission fails to address two of the most pressing threats to Australia’s water security, namely the devious and constitutionally dodgy hyper-allocation and de-facto privatisation of Murray-Darling water.

(If, having read this article, you wish to contact Craig Wallace,  the Queensland Minister responsible for actioning the valuation of water licences, his fax number is (07) 4773-5013)

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At the conclusion of the programme, any independent observer of the Four Corners report, aired by our national broadcaster last night, would have risen somewhat unsteadily from the couch, staggered by the degree of ignorance and/or greed displayed by many of those at the heart of the Murray-Darling crisis: politicians and water-users alike.

The future for the Darling itself can only be grim as long as the apparently myopic Queensland Minister for Natural Resources and Water continues with the Queensland Government’s hasty application of absurd dollar-values to water licences virtually donated to their agribusiness cronies, including previous parliamentary colleagues, not so very long ago; valuations curiously based, not on projected volumes of available water, but on the size of the dams constructed, and still being built, by these agribusinesses and other water-speculators, anywhere where the natural flow of surface-water can be impeded.

(Image courtesy ABC TV)

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The rejection of the findings of the Senate Enquiry into the Coorong and the Lower Lakes and the issuing of an alternate minority report by the well-intentioned senators who called for the enquiry is further confirmation that the Murray-Darling crisis cannot be resolved by parliamentary process alone.

On returning to Australia today, the national coordinator of Fair Water Use, Dr Ian Douglas, repeated calls for the declaration of a State of Emergency, giving the Federal Government total control of Murray-Darling water resources and the powers to turn around the progressive ecological and social demise of the Basin, whilst a Royal Commission reviews its administration and governance.

The recent Federal Government acquisition of Toorale Station and its vast water allocation was always likely to test the environmental and social commitment of downstream irrigators. Sadly it appears that a significant number in Queensland have failed the assessment, and some are planning to activate ?sleeper? licences, enabling them to extract much or all of the newly-available water from the Warrego River.

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Fair Water Use views the Senate Inquiry into the Lower Lakes & Coorong as a welcome initiative, and, like many, was originally unaware that the Senate committee will also be reviewing Senator Nick Xenophon's Emergency Water (Murray-Darling Basin Rescue) Bill 2008.

Although this Bill reflects the growing realisation that a State of Emergency must be declared, sadly it permits the continuation of water reform, more correctly termed water privatisation: a process which should in fact be stopped dead in its tracks. Moreover, in the interests of expediency, it is COAG, and not the Senate, that should be calling immediately for a State of Emergency.  

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Not content with being a major contributor to the desiccation of creeks and rivers in the Murray-Darling and to the increased salinity of the system, in the midst of the nation?s worst water crisis the cotton industry is intending to increase its use of groundwater, as this is more cost-effective than purchasing impounded surface water at current prices.

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Coordinator of Fair Water Use (Australia), Dr Ian Douglas has responded to today?s statement by the Federal Water Minister that the Commonwealth is not in a position to purchase major irrigating agribusiness enterprise, Darling Farms, in the absence of support from the State Government of NSW.

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Twelve months ago, John Corboy, co-convenor of Foodbowl Unlimited, ex-Chairman of SPC and strong proponent of the Victoria?s north-south pipeline, went on record as stating that the future for agriculture in the Goulburn Valley was ?not all gloom and doom? as Australian farmers stand to benefit from the impact of two ecological time-bombs: the impending collapse of the largely ground-water irrigated agricultural sector in Northern China, home to around half of the country?s population of 1.3 billion, and the ever-worsening degradation and pollution of river systems in India and China.

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The reported response by the NSW Water Minister to the likely government purchase of Toorale Station will have caused many Australians to choke on their Vegemite soldiers this morning. One cannot help but deduce that Mr Rees lacks either the ability or the will to acknowledge the anthropogenic factors which have brought the Murray-Darling Basin to its knees.