23rd February 2007Queensland Farmers Federation has called on Federal and State Governments to agree on a “commonsense” approach to water reform that provides more effective national leadership on the Murray Darling Basin while providing certainty in arrangements at the farm level.
QFF chief executive, John Cherry, said that a successful reform agenda would need the Commonwealth and the States working together with irrigators and experts on the ground.
“The starting point for reform must be completion of the current water planning round. Queensland must be allowed to complete its planning process which started in 1997 and deliver secure entitlements to water users,” he said.
“Otherwise Queensland farmers will be severely disadvantaged given secure water entitlements have already been finalised and issued in other States.
“QFF is looking for an assurance from the Prime Minister and the Premiers today that the Queensland planning process will be concluded and the rights of Queensland irrigators finally recognised after 10 years of planning processes under the National Water Initiative (NWI).
“There are five elements of a commonsense reform project that we think can get the runs on the board across the Murray Darling Basin.
“Governments must agree that water entitlements established under the current NWI processes are the starting point for reform.
“In Queensland, where 10 years of water planning is just months away from completion, that means finalising plans and entitlements across the Condamine-Balonne and Border River catchments.
“The Commonwealth must be given the authority to set a strategic basin-wide water resource management plan, advised by a skills-based Authority and extensive engagement with water users, communities and the States.
“The States should retain the role of developing and managing catchment water plans, which would need to be accredited to the basin-wide plan and NWI objectives, and take into account the very different challenges of the southern Murray Basin and the northern Darling Basin.
“The Commonwealth should establish an environmental manager to buy, own, sell and manage environmental flow water in cooperation with river and scheme operators to achieve the environmental flow outcomes defined in the basin-wide plan.
“A co-ordinated operation of infrastructure in the southern connected Basin (Murray and it tributaries), although this is not needed in the Darling Basin, where existing arrangements would continue.
“This represents a commonsense approach that fixes what is broken at the national strategic level, while leaving in place the local planning and operation that is working well in most States,” Mr Cherry said.
