Critical Times

Source: The Guardian

by Peter Mac

The Rudd government has so far failed to take advantage of a golden opportunity to acquire the vast southern Queensland irrigation property, Cubbie Station. The huge consumption of water in this and other irrigation properties in the St George area has drastically reduced water flows into the upper Murray River for years, just when flows have been shrinking because of climate change.

Cubbie Station’s dams, which have the greatest capacity of any irrigation property in Australia, can hold 530 billion litres, almost as much as Sydney Harbour. However, as the property’s current owners remarked: “In the end it was drought that beat us. We have only had one good season in the last five”.

The nearly bone-dry condition of the inland, and the likelihood of frequent and severe droughts, clearly indicates that intensive irrigation has no future in south-eastern Australia. The Queensland government’s recent weather review conceded that rainfall for the St George area could decrease by 34 percent by 2070.

Last week, despite predictions that Cubbie Station would be sold to private interests, the company owning the property went into receivership after none of the bids covered Cubbie’s $360 million bank debt. The property is still on the market, and could still be purchased by the federal government.

Three of the five bids made for the property were from overseas interests. Nevertheless, it is entirely possible that after the next rainfall, when the property appears more commercially attractive, a private firm could snap it up, thus perpetuating the current situation indefinitely.

Good policies sliding backwards

The government has expressed interest in acquiring Cubbie Station’s water entitlements, but the property’s owners have so far only expressed interest in selling the rights to 70 of its 538 gigalitres.

The government has rejected suggestions that it should buy the property outright, as it previously did in the case of Tooralee, another irrigation property. The decision to buy Tooralee aroused bitter objections from conservative local interests who want things to continue on exactly as before, and have accused the government of wanting to impose a socialist regime by buying Cubbie Station! Those objections appear to be influencing the government, whose initial policies on a number of issues appeared progressive, but are now in retreat.

The Rudd government also appears unwilling to cross swords with the Queensland government, whose water rules insist on land and water entitlements being sold together. The end result is that the Rudd government is procrastinating, and may do so indefinitely, at the very time when the need to boost the Murray-Darling flows is growing extremely urgent.

A wider view on rivers

Water accessibility is not the only major issue in the current river water crisis. In order for Australia to combat climate change it will be necessary to not only reduce greenhouse gas emissions but also to extend the nation’s natural carbon banks, particularly the forests.

The government’s decision to acquire Tooralee and turn it into a national park was excellent, because it opened up the possibility of reforestation, which offers not only environmental benefits but also local employment opportunities.

The time is ripe for government acquisition of Cubbie Station and other neighbouring irrigation properties that are now being offered for sale, if necessary by the government exercising its national emergency powers. This could be done at minimum cost, with little more compensation to the current owners than is necessary to clear their debts.

Last week, independent South Australian Senator Nick Xenaphon commented that irrigation properties such as Cubbie Station are not sustainable in their present use, in view of Australia’s likely future climate, and that “The only way to avoid more ‘Cubbies’ is for there to be an immediate national takeover of our river systems, including the Murray-Darling Basin”.

Alas, rather than doing so, the Rudd government is now engaged in seemingly endless discussions and arguments with the governments of the “basin states” (Queensland, NSW, the ACT, Victoria and South Australia), over the best way for them to spend the billions of dollars of federal funding allocated to improving the Murray-Darling flows.

A recent National Water Commission report found that state governments have failed to deal with excess water allocations. Only 40 percent of the water use plans they were supposed to prepare have been finalised. Few of those that have been completed deal with climate change, and in any case their recommendations have not been implemented. The governments of NSW and Victoria, which are primarily concerned with improving the use of irrigation rather than restricting its most intensive use, were criticised in the report as “parochial” and “self-interested”.

Meanwhile, the river red gums, which depend on frequent flooding, are continuing to die along the course of the Murray. Flora and fauna in the Coorong lakes at the river’s mouth face extinction, and towns in the NSW Lachlan Valley are running out of drinking water.

A major national question

The current crisis has prompted commercial interests to seek privatisation of the nation’s publicly-owned urban water supplies. This is usually accompanied with the claim that only the laws of supply and demand will ensure that water consumption is reduced.

This argument ignores the fact that government-set water rates already limit consumption, and that privatisation of water supplies would inevitably result in huge rate rises as the water corporations sought to maximise their profits, rather than maximising the benefits to ordinary consumers.

The current water shortages have led households and others to reduce their consumption to bare necessities. However, people must have some water, and if the water supply were in private hands, shortages would allow water corporations to charge virtually whatever they liked for this essential commodity.

The private ownership of water rights and water supply would be the worst possible outcome for the vast majority of Australian citizens. It is crucial for the federal government to take control and responsibility for the use of water from our major rivers, and for urban water supplies to remain in public hands.