In the course of the recent ABC Radio National interview with Keith De Lacy (Chairman of the Cubbie Group) and Ian Douglas of Fair Water Use, 28th June 2008,  Mr De Lacy informed listeners that his group was responsible for the extraction of less than 0.2 % of flows from the system. This apparently paltry amount does not sit too well with the well-known fact that Cubbie?s combined water storages have a capacity in excess of 500 gigalitres: more than one third of that required to revive the Murray-Darling system.

Fair Water Use is privy to information which questions whether Mr De Lacy?s comments are in fact an accurate assessment of the impact of the Cubbie Group, inasmuch as the 0.2% figure may only factor-in water that is extracted directly from the river system itself.  We are informed that the vast majority of the water they impound has been prevented from entering the system by massive earthworks that they have undertaken, and continue to develop, on the flood plains, now acting as a tourniquet on flows into the headwaters of the Darling.

If this is indeed the case, it is totally inappropriate for Mr De Lacy and his board to state that Cubbie has an ?almost negligible? impact on the Murray-Darling system and to continue their arrogant rejection of the increasing body of opinion which condemns their untenable exploitation of the nation?s water resources, virtually donated to the group less than a decade ago.

Fair Water Use urges the Cubbie Group to clarify this issue as a matter of urgency prior to the upcoming COAG meeting: Australians deserve no less.

[ABC RADIO NATIONAL SEGMENT: AUDIO]