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The Brumby Government’s arrogance is jeopardising Commonwealth funding for the Food Bowl Modernisation Project (FBMP), Shadow Minister for Country Water Resources and Deputy Leader of The Nationals Peter Walsh said today.
The Victorian Parliament’s Upper House voted again this afternoon to disallow a third water order to create a bulk entitlement to allow Melbourne’s water authorities to take water down the north-south pipeline.
Mr Walsh said the Victorian Liberal Nationals Coalition had blocked the government’s attempts to amend the bulk entitlement order because it broke key promises John Brumby made to food producers, the environment and communities in northern Victoria.
“The Brumby Government is placing Commonwealth funding for Stage 2 of the Food Bowl Modernisation Project at risk by refusing to honour its original promises,” Mr Walsh said.
“The Coalition is simply asking that the commitments John Brumby gave to food producers and the environment are reflected in the wording of a future bulk entitlement.
“The Brumby Government promised food producers water savings from the second stage of the project would be shared equally between irrigators and the environment.
“If John Brumby truly intends to share these savings equally, he wouldn’t be opposed to ensuring that his promise was explicitly reflected in the bulk entitlement.
“The disallowed order instead stated water from the second stage of the FBMP would be shared ‘having regard to any agreement with the Commonwealth of Australia that applies to these savings’.
“The Brumby Government’s refusal to close this loophole gives food producers every justification for thinking Labor has done a secret backroom deal with the Rudd Government.”
Mr Walsh said when Labor announced the north-south pipeline in 2007 it promised it would put in place ‘safeguards’ to protect northern Victoria’s interests, including a commitment it would only pump water to Melbourne during the irrigation season.
“In May Melbourne Water said the pipeline was ‘scheduled to shut down each year during the non-irrigation period that normally falls between 15 May and 15 August’,” Mr Walsh said.
“The order instead states that Melbourne’s water authorities ‘may use the available water resources at any time’.
“The Brumby Government keeps shifting the goal posts. We have said it before and we will say it again: we will not stand by while John Brumby continually breaks promises to northern Victorian communities,” Mr Walsh said.