Media Releases

The Brumby Government is trying to bully food producers in a desperate effort to pass a water order that breaks key promises to irrigators, Shadow Minister for Country Water Resources and Deputy Leader of The Nationals Peter Walsh said today.
Mr Walsh said John Brumby continued to reject Parliament’s decision to disallow these changes by reintroducing the orders for a third time.
“John Brumby cannot be trusted to deliver on the commitments he gave to food producers,” Mr Walsh said.
“Labor is looking for a legal loophole that makes changes to the bulk entitlements in anticipation of savings not yet made.
“We will not accept these water orders until the written word of the order implements the Brumby Government’s stated promises.”
Mr Walsh said John Brumby always promised that savings from Stage 2 of the Food Bowl Modernisation Project would be shared equally between irrigators and the environment.
“First the Brumby Government wanted to share it based on ‘future negotiations with the Commonwealth’, Mr Walsh said.
“Now it wants to share Stage 2 of the savings ‘having regard to any agreement with the Commonwealth that applies to these savings’.”
Mr Walsh said no-one but the Brumby and Commonwealth governments knew the details of that agreement.
“I believe John Brumby wants this ambiguous wording because he has struck a secret deal with the Commonwealth which guarantees them 100 billion litres of water savings from the second stage of the modernisation,” Mr Walsh said.
“Under those circumstances, irrigators would only get a 50-50 deal in the unlikely event that 200 billion litres of water savings were achieved.
“The Coalition will not accept the current water order until commitments to food producers and the environment are spelled out in black and white, not grey as is presently the case.
“John Brumby cannot be trusted. He broke Labor’s 2006 election promise not to pump water from north of the Divide and he has given us no reason to believe he hasn’t lied to irrigators again,” Mr Walsh said.

Victoria’s waterways are in poor health despite the massive environmental tax imposed by the Brumby Government, an Auditor-General’s report tabled in State Parliament today has revealed.
Shadow Minister for Country Water Resources and Deputy Leader of The Nationals Peter Walsh said the Control of Invasive Plants and Animals in Victoria’s Parks report showed three-quarters of Victoria’s waterways were degraded.
“Victorians are paying dearly and they expect the state’s water is being sustainably managed, yet the Brumby Government’s incompetence has left the state’s waterways in a dire condition,” Mr Walsh said.
“Since Labor introduced the environmental water levy in 2004, the government has reaped more than $300 million from household and rural water users.
“But instead of improving the health of the state’s waterways, John Brumby has redirected a significant amount of the funding to find ‘savings’ for the north-south pipeline to boost Melbourne’s water supplies.
“In the past two years, more than $43 million collected under the environmental levy has gone towards upgrading irrigation infrastructure in the Goulburn Valley.
“Instead of using savings from the project to improve the health of the Murray, Goulburn and Snowy rivers as originally intended, Labor’s immediate plan is to send that water to Melbourne to reduce water restrictions.
“Regional communities are suffering as the state’s water resources become an election year cash-cow for the Brumby Government.”
Mr Walsh said Labor’s environmental credentials were in tatters.
“The Brumby Government has looted environmental water from Lake Eildon and the state’s heritage-listed rivers,” Mr Walsh said.
“The Auditor-General’s finding is not surprising when the government has earmarked environmental water destined for the Murray, Goulburn, Loddon, Campaspe, Snowy, Thomson and Yarra rivers for Melbourne.”

The Brumby Government’s environmental credentials are in tatters following its decision to loot environmental water from northern Victoria’s stressed river systems for the Yarra River.
Shadow Minister for Country Water Resources and Deputy Leader of The Nationals Peter Walsh said the government’s decision to rob northern Victoria of environmental water was an act of lunacy.
“The government is taking 12 billion litres of water made through savings from the Wimmera Mallee Pipeline project and is using the north-south pipeline to send it to Melbourne,” Mr Walsh said.
“This water was promised to the Murray, Loddon and Campaspe rivers but the government has broken its word and taken it to Melbourne.
“Monday’s news reports let the cat out of the bag and the truth is the north-south pipeline is being used to deliver environmental flows to the Yarra.
“The Victorian Liberal Nationals Coalition supports environmental flows for the Yarra River, but we don’t believe they should be allocated at the expense of northern Victoria’s stressed river systems.”
Mr Walsh said John Brumby was treating northern Victorians with contempt.
“Labor is trying to cynically manipulate Victorians by spinning one story in Melbourne and another in regional Victoria,” Mr Walsh said.
“The government told food producers the pipeline was needed to secure Melbourne’s drinking supplies, yet in the city it has been telling voters that the pipeline has reduced water restrictions and boosted environmental flows.
“Boosting flows to the Yarra is no more than a political stunt to justify John Brumby’s decision to spend $750 million on building a giant white elephant.
“If there was any true environmental intent behind the government’s decision to return flows to the Yarra River, Labor would have ensured the water did not come at the expense of other, more stressed river systems.
“There is no environmental gain to be made from robbing heritage-listed rivers north of the divide simply to win votes in Melbourne,” Mr Walsh said.

PIPELINE WORK NOT OVER YET: WALSH
The Wimmera Mallee Pipeline will help guarantee the future of one of the state’s most important agricultural regions, according to Shadow Minister for Country Water Resources and Deputy Leader of The Nationals Peter Walsh.
Attending the official opening of the pipeline in Horsham, Mr Walsh said the project was a credit to the region’s farming community which had lobbied successive governments for the funding to complete the mammoth project.
“This is a fantastic day for the region. The completion of the Wimmera Mallee Pipeline is a credit to all those who have worked on this immense project,” Mr Walsh said.
“The pipeline was championed by former Deputy Prime Minister John Anderson and is due in no small part to the dedication and commitment of The Nationals Member for Lowan Hugh Delahunty and Federal Member John Forrest.”
Mr Walsh said there were still several unresolved issues which needed to be addressed by the Rudd and Brumby governments.
“Many farmers are concerned they have been left with the responsibility of filling in the old channel system,” Mr Walsh said.
“Local government are also worried that they have been left to foot the enormous cost of putting in fire tanks and hydrants along the pipeline.”
Mr Walsh called on the Rudd Government to address those concerns with the money it had promised but not delivered to the project.
“There is still $25 million outstanding from the Rudd Government which it promised to contribute to the project at the 2007 election,” Mr Walsh said.
“Those funds should be given to council to install fire hydrants and to Grampians Wimmera Mallee Water to backfill the old channel system.”
Mr Walsh also called on the Brumby Government to return water saved by the project to the environment, instead of using the north-south pipeline to send it to Melbourne.
“It is unfortunate that this fantastic project has been marred by John Brumby’s failure to live up to his original promise to return the water saved by the Wimmera Mallee pipeline to the environment.”

Water Minister Tim Holding has refused to provide Parliament with a guarantee that the Brumby Government has acted within privacy laws when spying on north-south pipeline protesters.
Shadow Minister for Country Water Resources and Deputy Leader of The Nationals Peter Walsh asked Mr Holding in Question Time to give an undertaking to the House that the government, its agencies and bodies had not breached the Privacy Act.
“The Minister has refused to assure the Parliament that the government acted within the law,” Mr Walsh said.
“Mr Holding actually defended Labor’s decision to employ private contractors to intimidate and spy on protesters.”
Mr Walsh said Mr Holding had acted hypocritically by refusing to provide Parliament with a guarantee his agencies were acting lawfully.
Last year the Minister told 3AW:
‘… the provisions of the Privacy Act override any Memorandum of Understanding or any other arrangement that people enter into. Legislation is supreme, ah, people have to obey the law. Everybody has to obey the law.’
“Clearly the Minister isn’t confident that Melbourne Water and the Sugarloaf Alliance acted within the law or he would plainly say so,” Mr Walsh said.
“Pipeline and desalination protesters have been bullied, intimidated and monitored extensively by the Brumby Government because they have dared to criticise government policy.
“Documents obtained under Freedom of Information laws show the government has even passed on intelligence collected during its extensive surveillance operations to the Security Intelligence Group, Victoria’s counter-terrorism unit.
“The heavy-handed and thuggish tactics employed by this arrogant and out-of-touch government will now be the subject of a Parliamentary inquiry.
“The Law Reform Committee will investigate whether the rights and privacy of Victorians protesting about the government’s Wonthaggi desalination plant and other similar construction projects such as the north-south pipeline have been breached,” Mr Walsh said.

Today’s announcement of 100% water allocation for Murray River irrigators makes the call for immediate changes to water carryover rules even more necessary according to Member for Swan Hill, Peter Walsh.
“Earlier this week I called on the Minister for Water, Tim Holding, to implement the next season carryover rules immediately to eliminate the disadvantage being suffered by those irrigators who purchased temporary water based on expected low seasonal allocations,” Mr Walsh said.
“This disadvantage is now exacerbated by the latest allocation which, whilst welcome in itself, actually further penalises those irrigators who have implemented prudent planning decisions
“It is imperative that the carryover rules due to be implemented on June 30 must be brought forward now to ease the burden on these irrigators,” Mr Walsh said.

John Brumby’s failure to undertake a proper economic analysis of the Food Bowl Modernisation Project has drawn scathing criticism from the country’s top water experts and economists.
Shadow Minister for Country Water Resources and Deputy Leader of The Nationals Peter Walsh said the Food Bowl Modernisation Project should have been evaluated and designed to benefit northern Victorian food producers instead of Melbourne.
“Experts say the Brumby Government’s plan was based on ‘spurious’ claims, is a ‘scandalous waste of billions of dollars’ and are calling the Food Bowl Modernisation Project ‘the northern dog’,” Mr Walsh said.
“They have backed the Auditor-General’s finding that there was a ‘lack of rigour’ in estimating costs, benefits and risks.
“John Brumby rushed this project though without a proper economic analysis because after failing to plan for Melbourne’s water needs he thought water savings were a quick fix.”
Mr Walsh said the criticisms made in The Sunday Age backed the Coalition’s belief that the government had dramatically over estimated the water savings available through the project.
The Coalition’s analysis of the business case for Stage 1 of the Food Bowl Modernisation Project also showed the government grossly exaggerated the economic benefits of the Food Bowl Modernisation Project.
“The government employed consultants to undertake an assessment of the economic impacts of the project, but skewed the figures in its business case by counting the benefits twice,” Mr Walsh said.
“The business case estimates the economic benefits of the project to be about $1005 million, but the true figure is $381 million.
“It is also clear that the document was written after the project and the north-south pipeline were already underway and figures and tables were changed after it was first compiled.
“There are numerous references in the business case to progress made after the project was announced in June 2007.
“One table detailing the overview of the program’s schedule and the government’s expectations of water savings was changed in May 2009.”
Mr Walsh said the Coalition had always supported the concept of upgrading irrigation infrastructure but John Brumby was spending billions of taxpayers’ dollars with no clear idea of its benefits, costs or risks.

What the experts said about the Brumby Government’s water plan:
“The government’s claim that it is creating ‘new’ water is spurious in the extreme. When water is purportedly ‘lost’ in the irrigation district, it does not go to Mars. It is not lost at all, it has just gone somewhere else.”
Prof. Lin Crase, La Trobe University

“The business case just does not provide the information to make a proper evaluation. We have to accept the benefits and costs of the project on trust.”
Prof. Quentin Grafton, director of ANUs’s Centre for Water Economics, Environment and Policy

“The amount that is being paid by the taxpayer to get water for Melbourne is very high and in that sense this does not stack up.”
Prof. John Quiggin, University of Queensland economist

“When the desalination plant becomes operational, there will be zero economic gains from the Sugarloaf pipeline.”
Dr Glyn Wittwer, Director of Melbourne and Monash universities’ Uniwater initiative.

“The benefits to the environment would need to be seriously questioned. Some of the water that was ‘leaking’ was actually returning to the system and ending up further down the river. As for the cost-benefit analysis, the results are very suspicious.”
Prof. Donna Brennan, economist, ANU visiting fellow.

‘I’ve looked at the veracity of the Food Bowl Project’s claims to achieve real water savings … and I can’t see that there will be any significant real savings.’
Oliver Gyles, irrigator, worked as a senior economist with the Victorian government for 14 years.

Business case references to dates after the Food Bowl Modernisation Project was announced:
‘In order to achieve water savings in the 2008-09 year, expenditure of approximately $113 million was committed towards Early Works which was undertaken during Winter 2008. p.30
‘Key stakeholders were provided with an overview of the Steering Committee recommendations in late September 2007.’ p.112
‘Submissions on the Draft Report were received up until 23 October 2007’ p112
‘NVIRP submitted on 30 April 2009 its inaugural Corporate Plan, for consideration of the Minister for Water and the Treasurer.’ p.166
‘This section outlines the key next steps for NVIRP in preparation for commencing the 2009 program’ p.168

The Brumby Government should implement new carryover rules for irrigators in the Goulburn, Murray and Campaspe systems now.
Shadow Minister for Country Water Resources and Deputy Leader of The Nationals Peter Walsh said new rules, set to come into force in June, would ensure irrigators could take water they were losing under this year’s rules into next season.
“Many irrigators made the decision late last season to buy expensive temporary water so they could carry forward the maximum amount of water due to concerns about the outlook for the 2009-10 season,” Mr Walsh said.
“They now stand to lose any water allocated above 50 per cent because the season has improved.”
Mr Walsh said with carryover rules set to change on June 30 to allow irrigators to carry over all unused water into the next season, the Brumby Government could ease the burden on irrigators by bringing in the new rules early.
“Irrigators have been struggling with the high cost of temporary water and low commodity prices for some time,” Mr Walsh said.
“It is unjust that those who manage their affairs wisely should lose significant amounts of money because they made prudent planning decisions.
“The Brumby Government should bring the new rules into force now so those who saved or bought water are not disadvantaged.”
Mr Walsh said most irrigators had made decisions based on a predicted allocation of less than 50 per cent.
“Those losing water over the 50 per cent allocation threshold should be able to carry water forward so they don’t have to enter the market at the end of the year to buy carryover water for 2011.
“I call on John Brumby to implement those rules now so that these irrigators are not further disadvantaged,” Mr Walsh said.

The decision taken by Campaspe irrigators to close their system is another regrettable step in the winding down of irrigation in northern Victoria, according to Shadow Minister for Country Water Resources and Deputy Leader of The Nationals Peter Walsh.
Mr Walsh said after years of poor allocations, 70 per cent of irrigators voted to decommission the system at a meeting in Rochester last night.
“This is a distressing day for the region, but I respect the decision taken by those who have endured years of drought and hardship,” Mr Walsh said.
“The Campaspe system has been impacted upon by drought and poor government water policy.
“The closure of the system underlines the utter folly of Labor’s decision to augment Melbourne’s water supplies with water from northern Victoria.
“The Brumby Government is looting water from northern Victoria for Melbourne at a time when farming families are being forced to leave the land due to a lack of water.”
Mr Walsh warned the government against claiming water savings from closing the Campaspe system and adding them to the ‘savings’ it purported to have made through the Food Bowl Modernisation Project.
“These savings cannot be claimed as real and taken to Melbourne because the system hasn’t run for the best part of five years,” Mr Walsh said.
“The Brumby Government based modelling for future inflows into Melbourne’s catchments on the average of the last three years being the norm in the future.
“By the same logic, there are no savings to be made from closure of the Campaspe system. You can’t save something from nothing,” Mr Walsh said.
The Nationals Member for Rodney Paul Weller said his greatest concern was for the future of those involved.
“The loss of this water is going to have long-term economic implications for Rochester in particular, which relies heavily on agricultural industries,” Mr Weller said.
“It’s vital that the government assists Campaspe irrigators wishing to connect to the Goulburn system so there’s no disruption to their business.
“The government must reduce any red tape and streamline the process so irrigators can continue with the important task of food production,” Mr Weller said.

Shadow Minister for Country Water Resources and Deputy Leader of The Nationals Peter Walsh has criticised Member for Gippsland East Craig Ingram for supporting a plan to have Victorians drink purified sewerage water.
Mr Walsh said Mr Ingram had suggested to the Brumby Government that adding recycled sewerage to potable water supplies was a ‘credible and viable option’.
“During Parliament this week, Mr Ingram made it clear that he does not support any additional storages in Gippsland to supply the urban and food production needs of East Gippsland,” Mr Walsh said.
“He would prefer instead to add recycled water to the drinking supplies of Bairnsdale, Paynesville and Metung.”
Mr Walsh said Mr Ingram had articulated his views on adding recycled sewerage to potable water supplies in his dissenting report to the Environment and Natural Resources Committee’s Inquiry into Melbourne’s future water supply.
In the report, Mr Ingram stated:
‘The committee should have supported a much stronger position on purified recycled water.’
In criticising the majority report for failing to recommend recycled water be added to drinking supplies Mr Ingram said:
‘In my view the committee has not shown appropriate leadership on this issue.’
“It would appear Mr Ingram is peddling one view among his Labor mates in Parliament and another in his electorate,” Mr Walsh said.
“The voters of Gippsland East might have something to say if they knew their local member was advocating a plan to add recycled sewerage water to local drinking supplies.”
Mr Walsh said the Victorian Liberal Nationals Coalition supported stormwater harvesting and the use of recycled water but only for non-drinking purposes.