Response to Labor’s fish death report

Labor’s fish death panel led by the Australian Academy of Science, whose CEO is a former employee of Bill Shorten, has released its document on recent fish deaths.

 

It makes some sensible findings and recommendations, some obvious ones; some not so sensible.

 

“After working so hard along with Tony Burke to take the politics out of the Basin Plan, it’s deeply disappointing to have Labor politicise the issue by commissioning an organisation which has Bill Shorten’s former key staff member as CEO,” Minister for Agriculture David Littleproud said.

 

“Many findings and recommendations in this document are political, not scientific. It’s a shame the Australian Academy of Science seems to have done the Labor Party’s bidding and opened itself up to claims that he who pays the piper calls the tune.

 

“The recommendation to scrap the 1500 gigalitre cap on water buybacks is purely political. Scientists should not be concerned about how water is recovered; only how much of it goes down the system, when, and what environmental outcomes that produces. The Coalition continues to choose to recover water in a way which doesn’t cost jobs, and clinched crucial agreement from all states on this is December 2018.

 

“Repealing the Northern Basin Review to return 70GL of water to northern rivers would make no difference to the Darling River below the Menindee Lakes.

 

“The Murray Darling system is not a pipe – most northern water seeps into the earth or evaporates and does not make it to Menindee. Scientific modelling accepted by all sides of politics found only one in 25 litres of water which comes down from the northern basin goes over the barrages in South Australia.

 

“All parties effectively endorsed the Northern Basin Review on 21 September 2018 when no disallowance motion was put to Parliament on the matter. All attacks on the NBR after that date are therefore a political stunt.

 

“Further, blaming upstream irrigation for fish deaths in a year when there was almost zero irrigation taken from the system upstream of Menindee makes no sense. Irrigators north of Menindee – in the Gwydir, Namoi and Macquarie districts – all got general allocations of zero this year. As an example, Cubbie produced around 1 per cent of its usual crop this year.

 

“Saying that stopping farmers from taking water – which they’re not actually taking – would have stopped the fish death makes no sense. Blaming irrigators in a year in which they took very little water from the system above Menindee pushes a myth. That’s not science.

 

“Taking ‘urgent steps to ensure there is sufficient flow’ in the Darling is impossible unless these scientists know a really good rain dance. The Darling River is fed by Menindee, a storage altered by man, which is now only 2 per cent full. We need rain, not politics.”