MEDIA RELEASE: Murray-Darling Plan doomed to fail unless the 450GL is delivered - reports say
A report today from the Wentworth Group of Concerned Scientists confirms the health of the Murray-Darling Basin depends on the Government delivering the additional 450GL which Barnaby Joyce has been threatening to withhold.
"Without substantial changes, the MDBP (Murray Darling Basin Plan) will fail” warns their report.
Barnaby Joyce needs to understand the 450GL is an essential part of the plan. Without it, the Basin will not be restored to health.
Acquiring that water through infrastructure expenditure is an important way of alleviating the pressure on irrigators themselves as the transition takes place.
Barnaby Joyce cannot pick and choose which parts of the plan he implements. He cannot simply make concessions to certain communities and pretend the Basin will not suffer as a whole.
The Murray Darling Basin Plan resolved more than 100 years of intractable conflict in the Basin. It is the only pathway to a healthy working basin. There are no jobs on dead rivers.
There is still time for the full plan to be implemented. Barnaby Joyce should not be the politician who breaks the historic consensus achieved in 2012.
MONDAY, 26 JUNE 2017