Government dragged kicking and screaming to actually enforce water law

MEDIA RELEASE – 8 March 2018
The NSW Greens welcome the announcement of prosecutions on water compliance matters, but said the government was dragged kicking and screaming into actually enforcing water laws and had announced the prosecutions today as a smokescreen from a damning Ombudsman’s report on Water NSW providing false figures to the Ombudsman that is due to be tabled in NSW Parliament later today.

NSW greens water spokesman Jeremy Buckingham said:

“It’s smokescreen that these prosecutions have been announced on the day when the Ombudsman will table a damning report on how Water NSW provided false figures in an effort to cover up the lack of enforcement.

“This government has been dragged kicking and screaming into actually having to enforce water law.  The lack of compliance has undermined public confidence in the Murray Darling Basin Plan.

“Water theft has real world consequences for the environment and downstream communities. The Darling River is bone dry or suffering blue-green algae breakouts because of over extraction by upstream irrigators.

“The fish rots from the head down, and successive National Party water ministers have created a culture that has resulted in a lack of compliance and favourable treatment of big irrigators.”

Buck stops with Niall Blair: water compliance deception not acceptable

Media Release – 27 February 2018

NSW Greens water spokesman Jeremy Buckingham called on NSW water minister Niall Blair to come clean on whether his Department has attempted to deceive the NSW Ombudsman over compliance actions taken on water issues, saying that the buck had to stop with the minister if there has been any deception, given the Westminster system and the minister’s continual attempts to play down and cover up allegations of water theft and corruption.

“Water minister Niall Blair has led by example in his repeated attempts to play down, stone wall and cover up the growing scandal with water theft and compliance in NSW,” said Greens MP Jeremy Buckingham.

“If it is true his Department has now been caught trying to deceive the Ombudsman, then they are simply mirroring the attitude taken by Minister Blair and he must accept responsibility.

“The minister has repeatedly resisted calls for previous Ombudsman reports to be tabled in NSW Parliament to the extent that the Ombudsman is now reporting directly to the parliament to ensure the minister can not block their release.

“The acute and chronic failure in water compliance in NSW is undermining the entire Murray-Darling Basin Plan.

“The ever growing scandal in the administration of water in Australian needs a Royal Commission to lance the boil,” he said.

NSW must stay in the Murray Darling Basin Plan

MEDIA RELEASE – 15 February 2018

NSW Greens water spokesman Jeremy Buckingham today condemned NSW water minister Niall Blair’s comments that NSW should pull out of the Murray Darling Basin Plan as irresponsible and continuing the pattern of siding with big cotton irrigators against the long-term health of the river and the communities and ecology that depend on it.

NSW Greens water spokesman Jeremy Buckingham said:

“The National Party have been working with big irrigators for a long time to either gut the Plan or pull out. The real loser is the river, the ecology, the farmers, communities, and the ability to have good governance between the states.

“I’ve been inundated by Australians who care about the health of the Murray and Darling Rivers, who want the billions of public money buying back real water to flow down our rivers rather than being wasted on smoke and mirrors infrastructure tricks, or paying for water that gets sucked up irrigators pipes anyway because NSW water metering and compliance is farcical.

“The Nationals’ record on water is highly abysmal and under investigation for corruption. They are in no position to lecture anyone about water management and should be stripped of all responsibility for water.

“Prime Minister Turnbull should show some national leadership by giving the Murray Darling Basin Authority some teeth, enforce genuine metering, compliance and buybacks, and stare down parochial state ministers and the handful of irrigation companies that have been trying to gut the MDBP and public confidence in water management.

“The Greens will always act to ensure a successful Murray Darling Basin Plan, but that means a plan that actually delivers water back to the rivers, not some dodgy agreement designed to benefit irrigators.”

Cascading reports ring alarm over failing Murray Darling Basin Plan

MEDIA RELEASE – 30 November 2017

Four separate reports in the last few days have all rung the alarm bell over the progress of the Murray Darling Basin Plan, underlining the need for a federal Royal Commission into the administration of the Murray Darling Basin.

Since last Saturday the following reports have released:

• Murray Darling Basin Authority Water compliance review
• Wentworth Group of Concerned Scientists Review of water reform in the Murray Darling Basin
• Ken Matthew’s Final Report into water management and compliance in NSW;
• Australian National Audit Office review of New South Wales’ Protection and use of Environmental Water in the Murray-Darling Basin.

NSW Greens water spokesman Jeremy Buckingham said:

“We have had cascading reports concluding the Murray Darling Basin Plan is failing and billions of taxpayer’s dollars are being wasted on projects that are not restoring our rivers and wetlands.

“These report indicate that the Basin Plan is on the brink of failure because of recalcitrant states, a tame Murray Darling Basin Authority, a dysfunctional water market that is being rorted, a lack of compliance, and National Party water ministers acting to destroy it.

“Water is a very complex issue where government decisions can result in windfall profits, so it is ripe for corruption and fraud.  Revelations over the last few months are ringing the alarm bells that compliance is rotten and the Murray Darling Basin Plan is failing.

“The Murray Darling Basin Authority is captive and tame, when it should be a fierce proponent for restoring healthy rivers and taking on parochial interests such as state governments and the irrigation industry.

“Everywhere we look, the National Party, in cahoots with big irrigators and tame bureaucrats, are conniving and maneuvering to keep irrigators canals full, and stop water being returned to our rivers and wetlands.”

“The states are cooking up schemes and projects that reduce the amount of water being returned the rivers, or putting in place regulatory barriers to prevent proper environmental flows.  It looks like they are actively working to retard the progress of the Basin Plan.

“The Greens are calling for a federal Royal Commission into the administration of the Murray Darling Basin.”

Cover Up King Blair fails transparency test

MEDIA RELEASE – 22 November 2017

The NSW Greens have accused water minister Niall Blair of covering up maladministration of water compliance and enforcement after the government used its numbers in parliament to block 18 votes to 15 votes, the public release of three separate ombudsman reports.

In his latest interim report the NSW Ombudsman says:

 “The concerns raised in earlier investigations continue to be a strong theme in the current investigation, and are summarised in this progress report.”

The Ombudsman has produced three separate reports on water compliance and enforcement in 2009, 2012 and 2013.  None of these reports have been made public by the minister.

NSW Greens water spokesman Jeremy Buckingham said:

“This was a test to see whether water minister Niall Blair was fair dinkum about transparency, and he has flunked it badly.

“The Ombudsman made it clear in his interim report that many of the issues now causing scandal were raised in a series of reports dating back as far as 2009.

“It is important to see what information and recommendations the Ombudsman made in previous reports, and whether successive NSW Government took the conclusions of these report seriously or enacted the recommendations.

“Next time water minister Niall Blair says he is not acting to cover up this scandal, remember that he voted to block the public from reading what was in these three ombudsman reports.

“The National Party should be stripped of the water portfolio and there should be a Royal Commission in to the administration of the Murray Darling Basin.”

A test to see whether water minister Niall Blair is fair dinkum or covering up?

MEDIA RELEASE – 21 November 2017

NSW water minister Niall Blair faces a test to see whether he is fair dinkum about cleaning up corruption and mismanagement in water or whether he is covering up.

The NSW Ombudsman has produced three separate reports on water compliance and enforcement in 2009, 2012 and 2013.  None of these reports have been made public by the minister.

The Greens will move tomorrow for these reports to be tabled in parliament through the powerful Standing Order 52, which, if passed, will require the documents to be produced within 14 days.

NSW Greens water spokesman Jeremy Buckingham said:

“For too long minister Blair has been dodging and weaving pretending he is about transparency on the water scandal, but moving to cover things up.

“Here is a simple test for the minister:  will he support the public release of these three past ombudsman reports, or will he try to use the numbers in the parliament block their release and keep the public in the dark?

“Last week the NSW Ombudsman took the unusual step of directly tabling a damning interim report on water compliance and enforcement which noted that similar issues had been reported in three previous reports, but little had been done to deal with the issues for a decade.

“If the government blocks the release of these three reports, then you can be certain they are not interested in transparency, they are only interested in covering up.”

The following motion will be moved by formal business in the Legislative Council on Wednesday 22 November 2017.

1784. Mr Buckingham to move—

That, under standing order 52, there be laid upon the table of the House within 14 days of the date of

passing of this resolution the following documents in the possession, custody or control of the

Department of Industry and the Minister for Primary Industries, Minister for Regional Water, and

Minister for Trade and Industry:

(a) the first second and third NSW Ombudsman’s reports of 2009, 2012 and 2013 referred to at

pages 9, 10 and 11 of the “Investigation into water compliance and enforcement 2007-17: A

special report to Parliament under section 31 of the Ombudsman Act 1974,” dated November

2017, and

(b) any legal or other advice regarding the scope or validity of this order of the House created as a

result of this order of the House.

Ombudsman’s report exposes water compliance as rotten to the core

MEDIA RELEASE – 15 Nov 2017

A special report to the NSW Parliament by the NSW Ombudsman exposes that water compliance and enforcement has been rotten to the core for almost a decade and the government has failed to act despite repeated and detailed warning by the Ombudsman.  Previous Ombudsman reports in 2009, 2012 and 2013 told the government of the serious issues with compliance and enforcement, yet the government has failed to act and refused to publicly release those three Ombudsman reports.

NSW Greens water spokesman Jeremy Buckingham said:

“It’s clear that enforcement of water law does not function in NSW and is rotten to the core.  Some of these revelations are worse than 4 Corners or the Matthews Report.

“The government has been repeatedly warned by the Ombudsman that water compliance and enforcement is rotten, yet has turned a blind eye and deliberately hid previous Ombudsman reports from the public.

“It is only because the Ombudsman used his powers to go around the water minister and have this interim report tabled in parliament that we now know just how rotten things are in Water NSW.

“We need a broad ranging Royal Commission to investigate water in NSW so that all the issues and allegations that are out there are thoroughly investigated independently.

“Water minister Niall Blair must have known about the serious compliance and enforcement issues, but has done nothing but stonewall and cover up.  Enforcement actions have plunged under Minister Blair from 820 in 2014/15, to 200 in 2016/17.

“The Natural Resource Access Regulator Bill currently before parliament is a case in point.  The Bill fails to properly implement the recommendations of the Matthews Inquiry that compliance and Enforcement be controlled by an independent body.  The bill leaves responsibility with the Minister and the Department of Primary Industries, thus failing to deal with the conflict of interest identified by Ken Matthews and the Ombudsman.

“The Nationals must be stripped of the water portfolio or it will remain an area of maladministration and ripe for corruption.”

Some highlights from the Investigation into water compliance and enforcement 2007-2017:

• The Ombudsman initiated his investigation in July 2016. He referred one matter to ICAC in April 2017.
• Previous Ombudsman reports in 2009, 2012 and 2013 warned about serious issues – were kept secret by the government.
• Compliance officers were ‘press ganged’ into the role without proper training or skills.
• Water NSW staff allege they were directed not to investigate or had their delegations removed.
• No enforcement action had been taken on unlicensed dams that contained large volumes of water and were being used for irrigation purposes without the required water access licences or water allocations in a water sharing plan area.
• The transfer of some compliance and enforcement functions to Water NSW under the Transformation was having a debilitating effect on the conduct of enforcement activities across the State.
• There were systemic failures by senior management, in both past and current regimes, to take action on water compliance matters.
• Expenditure on compliance between 2012 and 2016 was $10 million less than recommended by IPART.
• Excessive delays in completing investigations and taking enforcement and prosecution action and of matters that were not being sufficiently prepared before the relevant statute of limitation periods expired.

Broken Hill pipeline business case a poor excuse for killing the Darling River and Menindee Lakes

MEDIA RELEASE – 23 October 2017

NSW Greens water spokesman Jeremy Buckingham today said the release of the business case for the Wentworth to Broken Hill water pipeline showed the government was again preferencing big cotton irrigators over the health of the Darling River and expecting the residents and businesses of Broken Hill to pay for it.

NSW Greens water spokesman Jeremy Buckingham said:

“This business case is a plan to spend a huge amount on an unnecessary pipeline so that the government can let the Darling River die and kill the Menindee Lakes by bypassing them and emptying them far more rapidly when they do fill.

“It is the brainchild of former Deputy Director-General of DPI Water Gavin Hanlon and his department who are now under investigation by ICAC for allegedly conspiring with a cohort of big cotton irrigators on the Upper Darling.

“The business case was clearly written with the government’s preferred answer in mind – a pipeline that will allow them to run the Menindee Lakes dry and allow more water to be taken out of the Darling River by upstream irrigators.

“The business case objectives fail to consider the environmental, amenity, recreation, tourism and cultural values of a healthy Darling River and Menindee Lakes – issues that should be central to a truly triple-bottom line approach.

“The business case fails to assess the option of a combination of smaller projects to address water security needs, instead opting for the big expensive pipeline option.  A combination of other smaller infrastructure and management options, as well as long-term efforts to restore the health of the Darling River was not considered.

“The business case rejects ‘water licence buybacks to secure Menindee Lakes supply’ because it would mean less water for upstream cotton production.

“It is presented as a fait accompli to the people of NSW, without any of the detailed modelling or public debate about the various options.  The business case should not have been kept secret and released only after the government has awarded the tender.  This is disgraceful governance from Water Minister Niall Blair.

“The pipeline will encumber the residents and businesses of Broken Hill with significant ongoing increases to their water bills.  They are being forced to pay for something they don’t want and for the Menindee Lakes to be downgraded to just a temporary storage for South Australian irrigators.

“Water Minister Blair says this pipeline is necessary because water buybacks are unpopular.  However, buybacks are only unpopular with his big irrigator mates.  Most Australians want to see the water buybacks necessary to restore our major rivers and wetlands to a healthy state.”

Berejiklian guts protections for clean drinking water for Sydney

MEDIA RELEASE – 10 October 2017

NSW Greens resources spokesman Jeremy Buckingham warned that the Berejiklian Government was gutting protections for the quality of Sydney’s drinking water with legislation introduced into parliament today ditching the ‘neutral and beneficial’ test for all types of development that are an extension to existing developments in the entire catchment area.  The Sydney Drinking Water Catchment extends from the Snowy Mountains to Lithgow and from Crookwell to the Illawarra.

The Environmental Planning and Assessment Amendment (Sydney’s Drinking Water Catchment) Bill 2011 has two parts.  Schedule 1 validates the development consent for the Springvale coal mine (that the Court of Appeal found was invalid because it polluted the water catchment).  Schedule 2 ditches the test that extensions to existing developments (not just mines) must be either ‘neutral or beneficial’ for water quality in the catchment.

Jeremy Buckingham NSW Greens energy and resources spokesman said:

“The Berejiklian Government is using the confected crisis of Mt Piper power station’s coal supply to sneak through laws that gut protections for the quality of Sydney’s drinking water supply.

“The legislation goes far beyond the issue of the Springvale coal mine and allows any extensions to existing developments in the whole Sydney Drinking Water Catchment to avoid the ‘neutral or beneficial’ test designed to improve the quality of Sydney’s drinking water.

“The Greens agree with the Court of Appeal that the ‘neutral or beneficial’ test should mean that any development in the catchment area should not pollute Sydney’s drinking water.

“The Sydney Drinking Water Catchment is a huge area of NSW, stretching from the Snowy Mountains to the Blue Mountains, from Crookwell to the Illawarra.  This change will apply to all types of existing developments, whether they are a mine, a piggery, an abattoir, a chicken farm, or a housing development.

“A perverse outcome of the legislation is that it will penalise new environmentally sensitive development over older more polluting developments.  New developments will be held to a much higher standard than the extension of existing developments.

“It freezes in time poor levels of pollution control at the expense of Sydney’s drinking water quality. It guts the principle that development in the catchment area should be either neutral or beneficial for water quality.”

Government shuts down debate on water theft scandal

MEDIA RELEASE – 13 September 2017

NSW Greens water spokesman Jeremy Buckingham today criticised the Berejiklian Government for voting against a Matter of Public Importance debate on the growing water theft scandal, after the Matthews Inquiry released a scathing interim report that raises more questions than it answers.

The Greens moved to have a Matter of Public Importance debate on the Matthews Inquiry interim report, but the government used their numbers in the Upper House to defeat the motion 20 – 16.

“It’s increasingly obvious that Water Minister Niall Blair is engaged in a cover up of this water scandal.  His government has failed to initiate an independent judicial inquiry, they have blocked parliamentary motions calling for documents to be presented, and now they’ve voted down the parliament debating the issue as a ‘Matter of Public Importance’,” said Greens MP Jeremy Buckingham.

“The people of NSW have lost confidence in the ability of the National Party to administer the water portfolio for the public good, rather than in favour of their irrigator mates and political donors.

“The Matthews Inquiry interim report raises more questions than it answers.

“Why did the Secretary of the Department prevent Mr Matthews from reporting on the conduct of other DPI Water Staff?  And what other ‘separate process’ is the Secretary and minister considering to investigate these other staff?

“Who is investigating former minister Kevin Humphries?  Is it ICAC?  Is it Mr Matthews?  Is anyone?

“Why did the Commonwealth pull its funding for compliance staff at DPI Water?

“What role did the restructure of water by this government have in undermining compliance and enforcement?

“Why have two audits into NSW Water compliance by the NSW Ombudsman in 2009 and 2014 been kept secret, despite attempts by the parliament and under Freedom of Information to have the audits released?”