Misconception and manipulation
I write in response to NSW Department of Climate Change, Energy, Environment and Water executive director Lisa Hingerty and her claims the Murray Regional Strategy Group is creating misconceptions around the Reconnecting River Country Program, particularly compulsory acquisition.
I have sat in on many, many meetings over time connected to the Murray-Darling Basin Plan and Reconnecting River Country Program (RRCP), and compulsory acquisition is definitely on the agenda for our farmers under the Landholder Negotiation Scheme (LNS) — a regulation linked to RRCP.
In fact, according to WaterNSW, 4000 landholders across Murray and Murrumbidgee will be impacted by the LNS (2700 of these are in Murray), so actually the threat of compulsory acquisition is very real.
And so is the risk of major flooding.
Ms Hingerty claims NSW DCCEEW is only proposing three modest environmental flow options between 32,000 and 40,000 Ml day at Wagga, below flood levels of 2022, occurring from August to October, three to five times a decade.
First of all, five times a decade is actually every second year and August to October is a particularly risky time in the Murray system; throw in a pre-filled system at the levels DCCEEW is proposing and the Murray is only one rain event away from another major flood similar to the catastrophic flood of 2022.
The Murrumbidgee and Murray rivers are two distinct systems and what is proposed for one will not necessarily work for the other.
The statement by Ms Hingerty “It just enables flows to travel along the river for a few days” is disingenuous and flippant, and understates the real risk of the volumes DCCEEW is proposing and the timing.
They leave no room for error and put the Murray at extreme flood risk, a fact we have been pointing out for well over a decade now.
Over time MRSG has put forward a collaborative and constructive proposal of what flow volumes could work to deliver environmental outcomes and this is continually ignored by government departments.
It is very easy to manipulate the conversation and turn it into a farmer verses environmental issue, however, farmers have never been opposed to supporting native vegetation, connecting wetlands and ensuring floodplains continue to thrive.
After all, without a healthy and sustainable environment, our farmers cannot grow the staple foods that you eat every day.
Sophie Baldwin
Southern Riverina Irrigators CEO