Shooters Fishers and Farmers Dubbo candidate Lara Quealy says she opposes further water buybacks from NSW irrigators in the wake of South Australian Royal Commission.
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“The NSW Nationals have twisted a headline and made it sound like I support further buybacks,” Ms Quealy said
“This is an outrageous lie. My position, and that of the SFF, is crystal clear.”
“Too much productive water has already been stripped away from NSW. We totally opposed further environmental flows to South Australia”.
Ms Quealy said SFF supports a federal royal commission into the Murray Darling Basin Plan, to stamp out both corruption and misguided environmental policy.
“While the SA Royal Commission did a good job exposing National Party corruption, I don’t agree with the finding we need more environmental flows to their state.”
“SA lakes are near full, while so many in NSW are at low levels or empty".
Ms Quealy took aim at what she calls National Party scaremongering.
“The National Party created this mess. It’s no surprise they’re pointing the fingers at others.”
“National Party ministers, who control water policy at state and federal level, are compromised from both directions.
“On the one hand, they allow their mates and wealthy donors to bend the rules and extract huge amounts of water from the northern basin.”
“On the other hand, they don’t want to lose a string of marginal Coalition seats in South Australia. So they’re happy to flush large quantities of 'environmental' water to SA, for recreational use in posh suburbs.”
“Trapped in the middle, ordinary NSW farmers are losing too much water”.
“That’s why we urgently need a federal royal commission. To expose all the problems with the MDBP, not just the things South Australians don’t like”.
“After cleaning out the corruption, we need to properly measure water use in the northern basin, regulate floodplain harvesting and develop water sharing plans based on the best possible science”.
“Once we do that, I believe it’s possible to manage our river system in a way that supports both sustainable irrigation and the needs of downstream communities.”
A spokesperson for the Deputy Premier said the SFF are scrambling to find a position on water that suits their political aspirations.
“The Shooters candidate for Dubbo has either failed to read the full report by the South Australian Royal commission or she has landed a major back flip on water policy,” the spokesperson said.
State Minister for Regional Water Niall Blair said the Murray-Darling Basin Royal Commission should be seen through the eyes of South Australia and the state Labor government that initiated it.