MEDIA RELEASE:

Two days ago, in the course of an interview discussing the implications of the NSW embargo on the trading of water licences, Mr Richard Haire, CEO of Queensland Cotton, which operates cotton gins in many parts of the world including the Murray-Darling Basin, offered the following pearl in defence of the embargo: “If you look at the problem in the Murray-Darling Basin, the problem systems aren't the Darling-based systems; the problem systems are the Murray-based systems”.

Fair Water Use would like to know precisely where Mr Haire has been looking. Apparently not in the bed of the Darling, which despite average to above-average rainfall in much of its northern catchment has once again barely flowed this year – a direct result of the presence of vast diversions and impoundments in its headwaters and floodplain; thousands, yes thousands, of kilometers of earthworks, not uncommonly constructed without the required consents. Bunds, levees, dams and, as in the case of the Cubbie Group, diversions able to redirect entire rivers; reshaping the very substance of the land by obstructing the flow of surface water into the Darling and its tributaries; rerouting it into gargantuan private storages.

This is eco-destruction inflicted on a staggering scale, to enable flood-irrigation of environmentally-noxious crops, most notably cotton, much of which is sent to gins operated by Queensland Cotton for processing and subsequent export. The assault is largely perpetrated by entities whose primary concern is the welfare of financiers and shareholders, frequently overseas investors, rather than the application of appropriate and sustainable farming practices.

It is believed that hundreds of gigalitres of water, which would otherwise flow down the Darling and thence into the Menindee Lakes and the Murray, nurturing the environment and its true farmers as it did so, is being misappropriated soon after it falls as rain in the Darling catchment. Ironically, reclamation of this water for the greater good would not require purchase of entitlements, merely adequate law enforcement by the Basin States. Despite promises of action, the States have failed to move effectively on this water theft and are clearly pre-occupied with their politically-motivated manoeuvrings to obstruct the efforts of the Federal Government to address the crisis in the Murray-Darling Basin.

Fair Water Use would like to remind Mr Haire that the Darling is in fact a vital component of the “Murray-based system”. Water may be the life-blood of Queensland Cotton and the growers that provide it with their questionable harvest, but, to extend the medical analogy, Australians are increasingly aware that much of this blood is accessed as a result of placing an almost complete tourniquet on the major artery that is the Darling River.

As stated only a few weeks ago by Mr Rob Freeman, CEO of the Murray-Darling Basin Authority, “Despite good rainfall in the north of the Basin during February, the Menindee Lakes received only about 190 GL from the Darling River, increasing the storage level to about 15 per cent of capacity.” Mr Haire’s comments therefore either reflect a staggering lack of understanding of the hydrology and current status of the Murray-Darling Basin or are intentionally inaccurate – surely not the latter?

No wonder he is keen that Australians look elsewhere.

Fair Water Use repeats its call for the Federal Government to declare a State of Emergency and to establish a Royal Commission to inquire into the management of the Murray-Darling Basin