Zoe Kenny
Federal treasurer Peter Costello's 2006 budget included a $500 million "cash injection" towards restoring the health of the Murray River, probably to give "green" cover to an otherwise woeful environment budget that only commits just over $100 million towards tackling climate change.
Environmentalists have given measured support to the Howard government's "cash injection", while pointing out that it is still only an interim measure and that it needs to translate into action if the Murray is to be saved.
The Murray is Australia's longest river, flowing 2500 kilometres from its source in Queensland to its mouth in South Australia. The river basin encompasses one seventh of Australia's landmass. As well as being one of Australia's most valuable environmental features, its health affects the lives of millions of people who rely on its water for drinking and agriculture.
The Murray suffers from a range of long-standing environmental problems — salinity, pollution, silting of the river mouth due to lack of water flows (necessitating 24-hour dredging to keep the river's mouth open to the sea) dying forests along its length (including rare Red Gum stands), and numerous endangered species of fish and birds.
In 2002, the Wentworth Group of scientists recommended that $1.5 billion would be needed to give the river a high chance of survival. In 2003, the Council of Australian Governments established the Living Murray program, committing an initial $500 million to return 500 gigalitres of water to six "iconic" sites along the river system.
According to Dr Paul Sinclair, healthy rivers campaign director for Environment Victoria, the central problem facing the Murray is water flow, with "too much water being taken out and too much pollution being put in".
Currently 75% of the Murray's water is being extracted, mainly for the agricultural industry, in particular dairy farming and rice production. The dairy industry alone "uses two and a half times more water than the 9 million people living in Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide", Sinclair told Green Left Weekly.
Most of the products of this industry are exported. In Sinclair's view, water from the Murray is supporting an "outmoded 19th century economy" that is unsustainable given that Australia is the driest continent on Earth.
The other side of the problem of the river's failing health is that too much pollution is being putinto the Murray, including salt, human sewage and animal waste. Salt is being dumped into the Murray in huge amounts as a result of land clearing and unsustainable agriculture.
While Sinclair said that Environment Victoria welcomed the recent budget decision, he noted that since 2003 "not a drop of that promised water has been returned" to the river, because the powerful vested interests of the agricultural industry lobby were "successful in getting governments to waste a lot of time looking at big infrastructure projects to save water".
He noted that the budget's new allocation of funds will be mainly channelled into infrastructure projects, such as repairing and upgrading the weirs and dams along the length of the river, as well as building a "fish-ladder" that will allow fish to travel upstream.
While he considers these projects to be useful in improving the health of the Murray, Sinclair argued that the central issue of water supply will not be adequately addressed. He believes the key to increasing water flow into the Murray would be a serious commitment from the federal and state governments to buy back water and water licenses from farmers.
However, in an interview broadcast on ABC Radio National May 9 World Today show, dairy farmer Malcolm Holm said there would be a "backlash" by farmers against water buy-backs because they "reduce the capacity to produce goods".
Sinclair told GLW that Environment Victoria's intervention at the Murray-Darling River Basin Commission ministerial council meeting, held on May 19 in Melbourne, pushed for water buy-backs, pointing to the example of the South Australian government, which has pledged to fulfill its obligations to the Living Murray scheme through water buy-backs, as well as the hypocrisy of the Victorian government, which has bought Murray water for urban use but not for increasing Murray water flows.
From Green Left Weekly, May 24, 2006.
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