Source: Jane Bardon, ABC Rural
A Senate inquiry has heard the Federal and state governments are still failing the farmers, communities and environment of the Murray Darling Basin.
If Federal Water Minister Penny Wong and the Murray Darling Basin state governments thought this inquiry would give them a pat on the back for trying to sort out the water crisis they were wrong.
Most of the evidence so far has suggested the Federal Government's response is disorganised and it won't work.
And states are still protecting their own interests at a cost to the rest of the Basin.
While the Federal Government's starting to buy back farmers' water licences to reduce overallocation, Queensland's still giving them out.
Liberal Senator Bill Heffernan questioned Debbie Best from the Queensland Department of Water:
"How does someone who doesn't have nay capacity, get a licence?"
She replied: "The particular company has applied for a licence, based on particular works on their property, and they're currently looking after the interests of an adjoining property. That is between the parties, and not for us."
Senator Heffernan replied the Queensland Government might say that is fair, "I think its fraud".
On top of that the Queensland Government's admitted it's having to restart investigating whether it's allowed illegal irrigation farm developments on the Paroo River.
Queensland's also long argued the water its farmers take out of the system has little effect on states downstream.
But the CSIRO's Bill Young said records show years in which most of the water in the Lower Murray came from Queensland floods.
"Including 1982 where about 90 per cent of the water came out of the Darling system, that was the year that was one of the very low years in the Murray system."
The inquiry heard New South Wales also still allows unregulated floodplain water harvesting.
Victoria, meanwhile, is planning to take more water out of the Basin and pipe it to Melbourne.
The pipeline project is also supposed to return water to farmers and the environment, but in the current crisis, drinking water needs always take priority.
That could mean Melbourne's critical human needs could outweigh most others in the Basin.
Liberal Senator Mary Jo Fisher questioned the National Farmers Federation's Laurie Arthur:
"So you've already seen the extension of critical human needs go from critical human needs to contingency planning to survival water, it's gone to industries and its gone to commercial animal production, clearly, from what you're saying, you're not seeing any consistency."
South Australia is trying to secure drinking water for next year.
But the inquiry heard its desalination plant could take three years to build, stormwater collection and recycling infrastructure up to ten.
CSIRO scientists told the inquiry there isn't enough water the Federal Government could buy up, and no way of getting to South Australia's dying Coorong and Lower Lakes.
And the NFF's Deb Kerr said the Government's still ignoring the social consequences its buyback plan will have when farmers leave.
"We're concerned that the social and economic studies won't be done, and we won't get a clear picture about what's going to happen with the buyback program and the infrastructure program."
Former Murray Darling Basin Commission head, and CSIRO scientist, Don Blackmore, said the Federal Government's current process of letting the market decide where it will buy back water and build new infrastructure is flawed.
"In one area we go out and buy water, and in exactly the same channel system we are investing millions of dollars to upgrade the channel system so it's an effective part of our future."
Don Blackmore told the inquiry Basin governments should have the courage to sit down with communities and decide which ones to buy out and which ones to protect from worse climate change-induced water shortages in the future.
When I was at the 2020 Summit I listened to the pleas of rural communities for planning, for hubs where they've got a sufficient education, sufficient health, sufficient technology to keep communities together. They all know that the nature of rural Australia is going to change. This is a reform which is desperately needed over the next decade or so because water will drive is as much as the population status of rural Australia."
