A move by the NSW Government to grant exemptions for floodplain harvesting of ‘‘untraceable’’ water was last night voted down in parliament.
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It is a decision welcomed by Southern Riverina Irrigators chair Chris Brooks as ‘‘not just a win for irrigators in the southern Riverina but for everyone across the southern basin; from farmers and flood plain graziers, the environment and indigenous community through to business’’.
‘‘Decades of irrigators in the north helping themselves to thousands of unlicensed and unmetered gigalitres of water has finally been put to a stop,’’ he said.
‘‘These irrigators will now have to be like the rest of us, metered and compliant to the National Water Initiative, the Water Act and the Basin Plan and their run of doing as they please has finally come an end.”
NSW Water Minister Melinda Pavey’s Water Management (General) Amendment (Exemptions for Floodplain Harvesting) Regulation 2020 was disallowed in the Upper House with the Shooters, Labor, One Nation and the Greens voting against what she described as ‘‘better management of water take in New South Wales’’.
She said the regulation was intended to, alongside the Floodplain Harvesting Policy, provide a clear framework that outlines the Government’s intent for floodplain harvesting licensing for water users and for the water regulator, the Natural Resources Access Regulator (NRAR).
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