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Media Release - Ministers Office Sydney: 12 November 2003 WATER REFORM - THE NEXT STEPS
Natural Resources Minister Craig Knowles today outlined key water reform initiatives New South Wales will pursue at Friday’s Murray Darling Basin Commission (MDBC) meeting in Melbourne.
The Minister described the initiatives as ‘first practical steps’ towards saving the Murray.
The initiatives focus on protecting and enhancing five key ecologically significant basin sites
- the Barmah-Millewa Forest (near Echuca, Vic) - the Gunbower and Koondrook-Pericoota Forests (near Barham, NSW/VIC Border) - the Chowilla Floodplain (South Australia) - the Murray Mouth, Coorong and Lower Lakes (South Australia) - the River Murray channel
Specific ecological objectives the Minister will encourage for each site include
BARMAH-MILLEWA: promoting breeding of colonial waterbirds and promoting healthy vegetation in at least 55% of forest areas.
GUNBOWER / KOONROOK-PERICOOTA: reinstatement of at least 80% of permanent and semi-permanent wetlands and at least 30% of total river red gum forest area
CHOWILLA FLOODPLAIN: providing more water to high value wetlands, maintaining river redgums, and protecting at least 20 percent of the original black box area.
MURRAY MOUTH, COORONG and LOWER LAKES: keeping the Murray Mouth open, providing better conditions for estuarine fish spawning and enhancing bird habitat (in Lower Lakes).
RIVER MURRAY CHANNEL: enhancing native fish breeding and habitat.
Mr Knowles said New South Wales would press for $150 million dollars to be allocated to major infrastructure and capital works programs to begin restoration of the sites, including
- construction work and other measures (such as ‘re-snagging’) to encourage the growth of native fish species - measures to control pest species such as carp - removal and modification of locks and weirs to encourage natural flood cycles - revegetation of riparian zones (flora growth areas) - automation and regulation of barrage gates (flow control mechanisms) at the Murray Mouth
“I hope there will be broad support for pursuing these initiatives,” Mr Knowles said.
“They are feasible, practical and represent ‘value for money’ in the water reform process.
“We need to focus more on results and less on numbers.
“It makes more sense to stop and ask ‘what are the problems to be fixed and how can we best target the dollars?’
“Picking an amount of water and then working out the problems is putting the cart before the horse.
“There is not much point in simply shoving speculative gigalitres down the river system and hoping for the best.”
Mr Knowles said the key to gauging the success of Murray restoration efforts would be keeping close tabs on environmental, social and economic impacts.
“We have to keep the environment and farming communities alive – the two go hand in hand.”
Minister Knowles said the MDBC meeting was the first major inter-governmental water reform discussion since the historic $500 million rescue package agreed to by Canberra and the states at the Commonwealth of Australian Governments (COAG) meeting in September.
“We have half a billion dollars on the table to spend and we need to be judicious about how best to spend it,” Mr Knowles said.
“If we can make progress at Friday’s MDBC meeting we will be in a perfect position to add invaluable input to the National Water Reform process being dealt with by COAG.”
© NSW Department of Infrastructure, Planning and Natural Resources
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