Sharman Stone MP

Saying no to the Murray Darling Basin Authority Guide to the Plan, Parliamentary report tabled in Parliament today

June 2, 2011

Today in Canberra (Thursday), the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Regional Australia released their report into the impact of the Murray Darling Basin Authority (MDBA) Guide to the Murray-Darling Basin Plan.

Federal Member for Murray, Dr. Sharman Stone is a member of this Committee.

“This is a very critical report for the Murray-Darling Basin given the original Guide would have put many irrigators out of business,” Sharman Stone said.

“The good news is that the bi-partisan committee chaired by Tony Windsor has released a report that has a more effective pathway to sustaining the environment, at the same time improving the productivity and well-being of the food producers and communities throughout the Basin.

“If the government acts on these recommendations it will immediately stop the non-strategic buyback of water, including their so called “rolling tenders”.

It will also invest more in environmental works and measures, and works on farms and irrigation systems to ensure that we all have a win-win situation,” Sharman Stone said.

“The recommendations also require that urban users and mining, especially coal and coal/gas mining in the basin has the same water use regulations and monitoring as irrigators.

“In light of the extremely poor performance of the MDBA when it produced the Guide to the plan, including its failure to use or interpret best science, the committee has recommended a different arrangement for the future management of environmental flows, and the works and measures required to find extra savings.

“This includes a monitoring and evaluation regime which puts the same requirements for efficiency and best practice on the Government’s environmental water managers as is on irrigators,” Sharman Stone said.

A full copy of the report can be found at

http://www.aph.gov.au/house/committee/ra/murraydarling/report.htm