The Water Election Team (WET) is concerned that water policies are not a major campaign focus in this election. They are asking all candidates to take the WET questionnaire.
Australia, the driest continent, is crying out for coherent, integrated and sustainable policies to ensure our unique environment will be here for future generations. Without a healthy environment our economies and our communities are imperilled. All things are connected. Ecologists know this. Indigenous people know this. We all know this. We need strong committed leadership.
If elected, what will you do?
Problem one: Plans for a 500, 000 population increase in the 2030 Vision Plan for SA are decoupled from water. Fresh water is a limited resource. Mining development will further deplete water resources. Desalination plants present another set of problems (see below Problem three).
PLEASE ANSWER YES (Y) OR NO (N) AFTER EACH QUESTION
1. Do you support the 500, 000 population growth target?
2. Do you support the recycling and reuse of storm water for human consumption?
3. Do you support the recycling and reuse of effluent for non-human needs?
4. Should new developments such as mining, housing and tourism be required to be self-sufficient in terms of provision of water in ways that do not further deplete existing water uses?
Problem two: The current catastrophe is the result of decades of mismanagement; a failure to work with the irregular flow patterns of the Murray-Darling Basin (MDB); government inaction on reports; advisory boards with limited powers re decision-making; a lack of open, transparent and respectful consultation; a lack of accountability; the privileging of certain economic needs over those of the health of the MDB; a curtailment of open multi-disciplinary research in favour of focused modeling informed by specific technical fields of expertise.
5. Would you ensure that decision-making is open and transparent?
6. Would you release expert reports to the public in a timely fashion?
7. Would you support Freedom of Information procedures that increased access and accountability of government decision-making processes?
8. Will you ensure that community consultation is inclusive, open, transparent and respectful?
9. Will you support funding for the Environment Defenders’ Office to work on water related matters?
10. Will you support the full and independent monitoring of water quality by the Environment Protection Authority, particularly the polluting effects of the desalination process on the gulfs
11. Will you ensure that all monitoring results (including community observations) are publicly available?
12. Will you require a full and public declaration of potential conflicts of interest by all government advisors?
Problem three: What price do we place on the health of our gulfs? Spencer Gulf and the Gulf St Vincent constitute a unique environment with a variety of species that exceeds that of the Great Barrier Reef. ‘Development’ along the gulfs and desalination plants in particular pose a dramatic threat to these environments. Sea grass meadows are diminishing, erosion is increasing, hyper-saline brine and chemical discharges have the potential to pollute the gulf waters and there are concerns regarding the rigour and scope of monitoring. Our unique gulfs need to be protected and restored.
13. Would you stop construction of the Port Stanvac desalination plant?
14. Would you allow construction of a desalination plant anywhere on the gulfs?
15. Would your policies support the reduction of storm water discharge into the gulfs?
16. Would your policies protect the gulf species and their habitats?
17. Would you support a marine park to encompass the entire Spencer Gulf and Gulf St Vincent?
Problem four: The Murray-Darling Basin is a living system but we are treating it as if it were ‘The Magic Pudding’. More water is being extracted than is sustainable. In 1981, the Murray Mouth closed for the first time in millennia. That should have been our signal that the system was over-allocated, but we kept taking more. With the legal separation of rights in water from rights in lands, water has become a commodity that can be traded on the market. The increase in large corporate ownership, including Managed Investment Schemes (MIS) has seen huge increases in the area of land irrigated and in the volume of water extracted. It has also contributed the demise of the family farm.
18. Do you support access to clean water as a universal Human Right?
19. Would your policies give priority to the needs of the river as a living system?
20. Would your policies ensure sufficient allocations to flush the river to the sea?
21. Should water be traded across water districts and state boundaries?
22. Do you support the privatisation of water?
23. Do your policies distinguish between the needs of family farms and Managed Investment Schemes?
24. Would you require Managed Investment Schemes to be environmentally accountable?
25. Would you support the immediate removal of tax incentives for Managed Investment Schemes?
26. Are you concerned about international ownership of Murray-Darling Basin water?
27. Do your policies support local foods and goods that are produced under environmentally sustainable conditions over cheaper imported goods?
Problem five: The first object of the Water Act 2007 is to enable the ‘Commonwealth, in conjunction with the Basin States, to manage the Basin water resources in the national interest’. The Murray-Darling Basin Authority (MDBA), established by this Act, commenced operation in December 2008 and is responsible for preparing a Basin Plan that will set Sustainable Diversion Limits (SDL) and ensure there is sufficient water for ‘critical human needs’.
28. Are you prepared to promote and support the provisions of the Water Act 2007 that will restore the system to health?
29. Should the MDBA Plan/Guidelines be released now?
30. Do you support a full audit of all water resources in the MDB: private, public, ground, surface, run off and across all jurisdictions?
31. Do you support the Water (Crisis Powers and Floodwater Diversion) Bill 2010 to enable the MDBA to manage all water resources of the Basin as a single system during periods of extreme crisis?
32. Would you ensure that Sustainable Diversion Limits (SDL) are developed in conjunction with an Environmental Watering Plan (EWP) in the Basin Plan?
33. Would your policies ensure that the Basin Plan not only set Sustainable Diversion Limits (SDL) but also returned the use of Basin water resources to long-term sustainable limits?
34. Would you develop an integrated plan for communities and local economies to adjust to the changes caused by reduced allocations and river flows?
Problem six: The Coorong, Lake Alexandrina, Lake Albert and Murray Mouth region is internationally recognised as one of Australia’s most important wetlands. The Ramsar Convention defines the core concept of ‘wise use of wetlands’ as ‘the maintenance of their ecological character, achieved through the implementation of ecosystem approaches, within the context of sustainable development’. Bilateral agreements, like the China-Australia Migratory Bird Agreement (CAMBA) and Japan-Australia Migratory Bird Agreement (JAMBA) are for the Protection of Migratory Birds in Danger of Extinction, and their Environment. The ecological character of these Ramsar wetlands is significantly degraded. Many species are threatened.
35. Would you work to achieve the Ramsar Convention standard of ‘conservation and wise use’ of these icon wetland sites?
36. Would you move to place any of these threatened wetlands on the Montreux Record?
37. Would you work to uphold obligations under international conventions like JAMBA and CAMBA?
Problem seven: The Murray-Darling Basin is at Code Catastrophic. The Coorong is many times saltier than the Dead Sea. The banks of the River Murray are slumping. The relationship between ground and surface water is poorly understood. Recent rains and environmental allocations have averted disaster but strong actions are needed and needed now. Policies that disconnect the river, lakes, tributaries and wetlands are undermining the resilience of the eco-system and possibilities for recovery.
38. Do you support the construction of a weir across the River Murray below Wellington?
39. Would your water policies support the immediate removal of the bund between Lakes Albert and Alexandrina?
40. Would your water policies support the immediate removal of existing regulators at Clayton Bay and across the Currency Creek?
41. Do you support opening the barrages and flooding Lakes Alexandrina and Albert with seawater?
42. Do you support policies that will restore the Coorong to health?
43. Would your policies ensure the return to environmentally sustainable levels of extraction for water resources that are over-allocated or overused?
