Yesterday?s (August 1^st 2008) announcement by the NSW Department of Water and Energy appears to confirm suspicions that the NSW State Government has little intention of contributing in a meaningful manner to efforts to increase environmental flows in the Murray-Darling. [SOURCE TEXT HERE] 

The 25% allocation now available to NSW irrigators in the Murray valley is in stark contrast to the current zero allocations of zero and 2% currently available to Victorian and South Australian irrigators respectively. The Department has also indicated that NSW allocations may well be further increased in the near future following increased inflows into the upper Murray catchment.

The question must be asked: how much of this water allocation is derived from water reportedly siphoned by the Department from the Menindee Lakes as part of what appears to be a premeditated move to maintain water reserves in the lakes at less than 38% capacity: the level above which the NSW Government must cede control to the Murray-Darling Basin Commission. Fair Water Use has requested that the Department of Water and Energy indicate what percentage of the water extracted from the Lakes in recent months has been allocated to critical needs, as opposed to commercial use.

Whilst Fair Water Use fully appreciates that Murray-Darling irrigators are desperately short of water, the interstate disparity in allocations is untenable and indefensible in the face of the current water crisis and the national issue of restoration of the Murray-Darling as a whole.