FED:Gillard vows to solve Murray woes

AAP General News (Australia)
12-07-2010
FED:Gillard vows to solve Murray woes

By Paul Osborne, AAP Senior Political Writer

CANBERRA, Dec 7 AAP - Prime Minister Julia Gillard has vowed to push ahead with a plan
for the Murray-Darling Basin, despite the shock resignation of basin authority boss Michael
Taylor.

Mr Taylor has announced he will leave his post at the end of January 2011, saying the
Murray-Darling Basin Authority was neither empowered nor equipped to undertake the task
of designing a plan to sustain the river system.

"A successful plan would require both the commonwealth and states to work together,"

he said in his letter of resignation to Water Minister Tony Burke on Tuesday.

Ms Gillard said a replacement authority head would be appointed and the basin reform
program would stay on track.

"We've got one chance to get water reform right," she told reporters in Canberra.

"The government will do what is necessary to implement the Murray-Darling Basin plan."

The government and the authority have been at odds over the meaning of the Water Act
- legislation brought in by the Howard government to save the ailing river system.

Mr Taylor argued, and repeated in his resignation media release, that the final plan
"cannot compromise the minimum level of water required to restore the system's environment
on social or economic grounds".

But the prime minister is adamant that the final plan should balance all three impacts
- environmental, social and economic.

Opposition Murray-Darling spokesman Simon Birmingham said it was a serious blow to
the reforms, just as consultation on the draft guide to the river plan was being finalised.

"Mr Taylor states very clearly that the work required by other parts of government
to deliver the basin plan is not progressing and highlights the risks of further delays
that will only add to the uncertainty in regional communities," Senator Birmingham said
in a statement.

"This resignation leaves a crisis in the leadership of basin reform, a crisis in the
interpretation of the Water Act and a crisis over the implementation of the basin plan."

Senator Birmingham said the minister, who the opposition has criticised for not attending
MDBA consultation meetings, now needed to take responsibility for the reform process.

Ms Gillard said her three aims were to "ensure that we have a healthy river, we've
got food production and we've got viable regional communities".

The commonwealth would continue to buy water from willing sellers.

Ms Gillard said she had confidence in the legal advice she had received on the basin
reform plan, and the government's interpretation of the Water Act.

She thanked Mr Taylor for the persistence and openness he showed by attending meetings
with regional Australians who were often angry, distressed or confused about the basin's
future.

The authority has recommended returning 3000 to 4000 gigalitres of water to the river
system each year, but environmental experts say more is needed.

A separate parliamentary inquiry, chaired by independent Tony Windsor, into the issue
has received about 100 submissions to date.

Mr Windsor told the ABC recently the final plan would come down to a number-crunching exercise.

"Everyone is arguing whether it's social or environmental or economic - it's actually
an accountancy issue and the starting point, rightly or wrongly, is 3000 gigalitres,"

Mr Windsor said.

AAP pjo/sb/pc/apm

KEYWORD: MURRAY 2ND UPDATE

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