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May 18, 2006
Remember that water has described by the PM as Australia’s greatest environmental challenge, was a high spending priority and there was a need to put a bomb under the process' of returning water to the river. Well there was an additional $500 million in the 2006 federal Budget, which was committed to water conservation measures in the Murray-Darling Basin---ie., to conserve water and preserve the iconic ecological sites, which are the focus of the Living Murray Initiative.
The federal Government had to step in given the failure of the Murray-Darling Basin State Governments (NSW, Victoria, South Australia and Queensland) to agree to adequately fund essential Murray-Darling Basin infrastructure work. The Australian Government's investment will allow the Murray-Darling Basin Commission to accelerate the full range of capital works across the Basin which it has identified as necessary to ensure the river system is operating at optimal efficiency. These include:
• Advancing construction of salt interception structures and systems to reduce salinity and maintain water quality for Adelaide, regional communities and irrigators;
• Completion of the sea to Hume dam fishways by 2011 to allow our native fish populations to reconnect along the River Murray;
• Maintenance and renewal of River Murray water delivery infrastructure, which is currently being run down; and
• New infrastructure to maximise the environmental benefits of water recovered for Living Murray initiatives, providing greater confidence that recovery of important ecological sites along the system can be achieved.
What of environmental flows? How much is being returned?
The $500 million injection will also fund additional projects under the Living Murray Environmental Works and Measures Programme and provide additional resources to ensure the return of 500 gigalitres per annum by 2009 for the Living Murray’s environmental flows. The time line keeps being pushed out, even though 500 gigalitres is one third of what is needed to make the River Murray a living river as opposed to an irrigation channel. The river has been reduced to the point whereby it needs dredging more often than not just to leave the mouth open.
Its time to move beyond recoverying water from water efficiency and infrastructure measures and start to look to the market to start buying water entitlements by engaging in water buyback schemes. There in lies the limit of water refom as understood by Malcolm Turnbull.
Of course, Jennifer Marohasy, Director of the IPA's Environment Unit, reckons that the river has already been saved.
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Gary, My brother grows Oranges on the Murray.To repeat his scientific appraisal of the river "It is rooted".
I visited the Murray as a child in the sixties,you could still catch a Cod back then.This river system is finished and frankly I could care less what any scientist tells me. And No/No scientific debate, and No/No ideas on how to fix the problem.
Oh sorry I do have an idea.The bunglers that approved the cotton growing areas on the Murray/Darling basin and the thousands of 2 bob grape growers should be taken out and shot.
Phill.