Exasperated by poor decisions and a lack of transparency, local Member for Nicholls, Damian Drum has made a call in parliament to have the Murray Darling Basin Authority (MDBA) taken apart and reconfigured.
Building on the appearance of Mick Keelty before a Senate Select committee in the past week and his continued review of data about water flows, Damian says he no longer has confidence in the MDBA to be a source of truth.
According to Damian, the authority should be split into three components, one to manage river operations, another to consider the Murray Darling planning and a third division to manage its legal compliance.
“The agricultural sector has lost total confidence and trust in the authority to do what is right,” said Damian. “We need to be able to account for every drop and as has been highlighted by Mick Keelty, there is upwards of 375GL not being accounted for.”
“For the time being, there also needs to be a moratorium on new developments until the allocations have been fairly apportioned. Putting up new irrigation projects in New South Wales or South Australia puts additional pressure on Victorian irrigators.”
Damian also sees potential i n bringing the MDBA under the auspices of the National Water Grid Authority along with all the other national basin management authorities each functioning under a common set of rules and regulations.
As it stands, each state has its own set of river management regulations with wide variation between each, a carry-over from the drafting of the Australian constitution under section 100 drafted back in 1901. The use of water has altered significantly over the years.
