Record profits of over $8 billion announced by “big irrigation” come at a huge cost to the environment and to the people of South Australia, who depend on a healthy Murray River, said the Wilderness Society.

The Age in Melbourne recently reported this fact at a time when “big irrigation” is refusing to reduce the amount of water it takes from the river system and recognise the urgent need to restore the Murray Darling Basin to health.

South Australia's Environmentalist of the Year, Peter Owen said the true cost of this profiteering comes in the form of environmental and agricultural destruction to the Coorong and Lower Lakes and ultimately South Australia's water supply.

"It fails to consider the cost of destroying soils with salt and the cost of not allowing the 2 million tonnes of salt that accumulates in the Lower Lakes every year to flush through the Murray Mouth and out to sea.

"The Murray Darling Basin Authority’s Plan, currently out for public consultation, is supposed to restore the health of the river system. To do this it must adopt the scientific advice and address the massive over-allocation of water that is destroying the Murray – South Australia’s lifeline.

"The MDBA must base their Plan on the advice of Australia’s leading river scientists, not “big irrigation” said Mr Owen.

For more information please call:
Adrian Dodd: 0401 726 476

Environment groups today launch a campaign calling on South Australia’s federal MPs to represent the interests of their constituents by speaking up for the health of the Murray.

For the next month big billboards with the message ‘No future on a dead river: SA needs a healthy Murray’ will be on display at prominent locations within the electorates of federal MPs Kate Ellis and Christopher Pyne. A letterboxing campaign will follow.

“South Australia has become the nation’s salt dump with our natural systems destroyed and our drinking water security compromised because big irrigators in Queensland, New South Wales and Victoria are taking too much water out of the river,” said the Wilderness Society's South Australian Campaign Manager Peter Owen.

“It’s going to take a concerted, bi-partisan effort from South Australia’s political players, at federal and state levels, to wrestle the Murray-Darling Basin Plan out of the grip of powerful industries upstream,” said Australian Conservation Foundation CEO Don Henry.

“This is an issue SA’s federal representatives must not shy away from – it is too important to the livelihoods of their constituents and to our state’s precious natural environment – on World Wetlands Day let us stand tall and honour Australia's international commitments,” said Prof Diane Bell of the Conservation Council of South Australia.

WHO
Peter Owen, South Australian Campaign Manager, the Wilderness Society
Don Henry, CEO, Australian Conservation Foundation
Professor Diane Bell, Chair for Water ESC, Conservation Council SA

WHERE
Billboard at north-west corner of Anzac Highway and Greenhill Road, Keswick

WHEN
Thursday 2 February (World Wetlands Day) at 11:00am

Contact:
Peter Owen, the Wilderness Society: 0423 550 018
Professor Diane Bell, Conservation Council SA: 0427 554 194
Ruchira Talukdar, Australian Conservation Foundation: 0438 547 786

The Wilderness Society has called on the Murray-Darling Basin Authority (MDBA) to acknowledge its failure to show a scientific foundation for its draft plan to return only 2750 Gigalitres (GL) of water to the Murray-Darling, as highlighted by the Wentworth Group today.

Wilderness Society Rivers Campaigner Chris Daley said the Wentworth Group is one of the most credible scientific bodies on the river system and cannot be ignored.

“The Wentworth Group has today slammed the scientific basis for the 2750 GL figure, an amount which will not restore the river to health,” he said.

The Wentworth Group's statement adds further weight to the CSIRO Science Review, released on the same day as the Draft Plan, that said 2750 GL would not achieve the environmental objectives of the Water Act and did not ensure sufficient resilience against the future impacts of climate change.

“The Wentworth Group's statement today shows what we've been saying all along – that the plan, which is currently in draft form, will not do what it says on the label, which is return enough water to the environment for a healthy system,” Mr Daley said. “The science is clear, we need 7,600GL of water to flush the salt from the system, ensure the Murray's mouth stays open and there is enough water to protect Australia's internationally significant wetlands.

“Anything less represents a colossal waste of the $10 billion of taxpayers’ money set aside to fund the plan. Australians should be outraged that the government is prepared to spend this money with no scientific basis.

“The Draft Plan, as it stands, is a political quick fix to a long-standing environmental problem and favours Big Irrigation and Mining interests over those of Floodplain Graziers, Dryland Farmers, Recreational Fishers and Indigenous Nations. “Rather than being a plan for a healthy working river, it is a blueprint for disaster.

“We call on Tony Burke, the Federal Minister for Water, to acknowledge the lack of sound science in the plan as highlighted by the Wentworth Group and refuse to table it in parliament unless the necessary scientific rigour is applied.”

For further comment contact Wilderness Society Rivers Campaigner:
Chris Daley: 0451 007 915
For further information contact:
Adrian Dodd: 0401 726 476

The Wilderness Society demands river be put before politics. South Australia's State and Federal politicians must stand united to ensure enough water is returned to the Murray River to open the mouth, flush the salt and pollutants and defend the rights of their constituents, said the South Australian Wilderness Society's Peter Owen.

Peter Owen, South Australian Environmentalist of the Year, said some politicians appear to be putting their own short-term political interests over the interests of South Australia's water rights and collective future.

"South Australians want the river restored to health. There's one way to achieve this and it means reducing the water allocation of upstream irrigators.

"If the Draft Basin Plan won't deliver, then the High Court option must be explored in order to restore our rights to a healthy river.

"We call on all political parties to support the rights of South Australians and to put their constituents first.

"For too long, South Australia has only had seven per cent of all water allocated to the Basin.

"This has devastated the natural environment and the economy that relies on it.

"Unless there's strong action taken, including standing up to the upstream bullies and big irrigators who want to flood their fields in the driest country in the world, South Australia will be hung out to dry.

"The stakes could not be higher” said Mr Owen.

For more information contact:
Peter Owen: 0423 550 018