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December 5, 2008
So it has come to this in the Murray Darling Basin. South Australia will have to buy water to guarantee supplies for critical human needs in Adelaide and towns next year. Necessary water supplies to Adelaide and towns across the state are at this stage not secured from July next year, and this has forced the Rann Government onto the open water market. Authorities must have 201gigalitres in reserve to ensure the water needs of the nation's fifth-largest city and the rest of the state are able to be met.
And Victoria is taking water from the River Murray for Melbourne. And the Rudd government ducks and weaves on the issue of the new pipeline to Melbourne. Is the pipeline the price that Rudd Labor pays for Victoria to sign up to the commonwealth taking charge of Australia's largest river system? There is to be no cap on the water taken from the River Murray in Victoria until 2019!
What kind of deal is this? Isn't the Rudd Government committed to a more sustainable use of water in the Murray-Darling Basin?
The Murray-Darling Basin Commission reports that inflow into the Murray last month was 140 gigalitres, just 18 per cent of the long-term average of 780gigalitres. November was the 38th consecutive month of below-average inflows. Under the River Murray dry flow contingency plans, the first priority is given to critical human needs. Yet the modernization of Victorian irrigation is premised on "normal" flows of 780 gigalitres, not on the more realistic reduced flows in a warmed up world.
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The Coalition opposition's attempt to amend the legislation to block the pipeline from the Murray to Melbourne came to naught. The Liberals backed down after the Rudd government rejected the amendment in the Senate. A lack of political courage.