The Greens are warning water ministers not to put up the white flag on saving the Murray-Darling Basin and the environmental flows needed to secure its future at tomorrow’s Ministerial Council meeting.
Australian Greens Spokesperson for Environment and Water Senator Sarah Hanson-Young said:
“Water Ministers must not go to tomorrow’s meeting waving a white flag on saving the Murray-Darling Basin and the environmental flows needed to secure its future.
“Last year’s meeting of water ministers was a dramatic farce and a communique couldn’t even be agreed upon at the time and was later released by the MDBA who should be independent of this process.
“This bad behaviour when it comes to the management of our biggest river system cannot continue.
“The Murray Darling Basin Plan is due to recover a total of 2,075 GL/year of water plus 450 GL/year of efficiency measures by 2024. If the MDB is going to survive then the Plan must be delivered in full and on time.
“For seven years, the Liberal-National Government has let corporate irrigators run amok with water at the expense of from river communities, small family farms and the environment. It’s time to rein them in, for everyone’s sake.
“The Greens will keep pushing for a Royal Commission in the MDB to get to the bottom of the trillions of litres of missing water, theft, corruption, greed and lack of action on climate change that is plaguing the river. We also back a High Court challenge to fight for South Australia’s water and the Murray-Darling Basin if the Federal Government won’t deliver it on time.”
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