Thursday, 22 February 2024
Shadow Water Minister Steph Cooke said while she welcomes the long-overdue release of the Government’s ‘Alternatives to Buybacks Plan’, the document is light on detail, and raises serious questions about the Water Minister’s lack of progress on vital water saving projects.
Ms Cooke said the Government is sending mixed messages when it comes to water buybacks; on the one hand assuring stakeholders they’re doing all they can to prevent buybacks, but on the other, having little to show for such promises.
“For months I have been calling on the NSW Labor Government to be up-front with Basin communities, and release their plan for avoiding water buybacks in New South Wales,” Ms Cooke said.
“For months we’ve been told that the Government is on the case, but as I feared, the plan released today confirms that very little has been done to either progress water saving projects, or identify new ones.
“In fact we seem to be going backwards, with projects like the redevelopment of the Wilcannia Weir – part of the Better Baaka program – being significantly scaled back, without proper stakeholder consultation.
“Time is running out; if we’re going to meet the 2026 deadline set out in the re-written Murray Darling Basin Plan to deliver the necessary water saving projects, we need to see greater detail around project plans, more transparency around the modelling used to calculate water savings, and increased community consultation.
“The Water Minister, together with the Premier, must also look at ways to fast-track the approvals process for water saving projects, potentially designating them as ‘state significant’ if they are truly serious about getting them over the line on time.
“The Premier and Water Minister have repeatedly said they’re against water buybacks, but as the plan itself states, it ‘does not eliminate the prospect of water buybacks in NSW’. This to me reads as though the Government is already resigned to resorting to buybacks.
“We need the Government to fight tooth and nail to ensure that buybacks don’t happen in New South Wales, instead of just paying lip-service to the issue,” she said.
Ms Cooke said the Water Minister must step-up direct consultations with communities directly impacted by the proposals set out in the plan, if the Government is genuine about finding pragmatic solutions.
“A webinar doesn’t count as consulting with the community; the Minister must direct her department to get out from behind their desks and meet people face-to-face on the ground to talk about the situation, and get meaningful feedback that informs the decision making process,” Ms Cooke said.
“It’s not too late to avoid buybacks, and I look forward to hearing more about the details of the plan from the Minister, and how she plans to stop buybacks happening, during her appearance at Budget Estimates next week,” she said.
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