MEDIA RELEASE 

Today?s statement (14th August) by the Prime Minister, that he has been advised by the Murray-Darling Basin Commission that there is only 2,250 gigalitres in the entire system, raises major concerns about the competence of the Commission and the impartiality of advice provided to the Ministerial Council by its Community Advisory Committee. 

The figure put forward today appears totally at odds with the August 7th announcement by Leo Roberts, the acting chief executive of the MDBC, that total public active storage in the Basin was approximately 4800 gigalitres and that private holdings were estimated at over 800 gigalitres. 

The PM?s statement comes shortly after the NSW Department of Water and Energy announced that water allocations to their irrigators may be further increased as a result of recent inflows into upper Murray storages following recent rains. 

Fair Water Use is calling for the disbanding of the advisory body that is the MDBC and its replacement by a totally independent authority with vested powers to act in the interests of the river system, upon which more than 3 million Australians depend.