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I just thought I'd put myself in front of the camera and have a chat direct to you because
over the last few days I've been reading some media clips off the back of
this piece of work that we've recently put out into the public domain for comment.
It's called the Constraints Management Strategy. The next line is important - 2013 to 2024.
The reason I want to talk to you is because
if I read those media clips you could be given the impression that this document is about
turning the rules of water management in the Murray-Darling Basin as we've known them for
the last 100 years on their head, throwing away the rule books in fact, and commencing
some rapid change of water management that's going to see towns flooded and a whole lot
of people's property rights affected. I'm here to tell you that is simply not true.
If it were true, I wouldn't be doing this job. No-one I know in the history of water
management would be foolish enough to undertake such an effort, and that is a million miles
from what this document is all about. What this document seeks to do is not change
anything, not do anything tomorrow, but merely start a conversation - a conversation we must
have. Based on the work we've done over the last
few years, based on all the submissions that communities and individuals have made, we
know that we can manage the (Murray-Darling Basin) system better and smarter, and unless
we start somewhere, we're never going to get to a point where we can make some decisions
about changes that are beneficial for everyone. Of course when you put a document like this
into play people will either want to use it for their own purposes, make their own points
and all those sorts of things - that's water politics in Australia and indeed around the
world. That's just situation normal. But let me be very clear: This is not a document
that suggests that suddenly towns are going to be flooded or individual water use entitlements
are going to be changed. That is not the case. Those are not the rules under which we're
obliged to play - the Governments have been very clear about that, and have been from
day one. All this does is start a conversation to say:
Governments of the Basin, if you want to make some changes to get better use out of the
available water, here are some things you probably need to look at.
So I commend this document to you, I think it's certainly worth a read, and if you're
going to make comments or want to have your say, you can, just click onto our website,
it's all there and you can have your say directly and you can participate in the many meetings
we are conducting, and have been conducting around the Basin over the past months and
into the future. It is important that you have your say because
these are fundamentally important issues that go to the implementation of the Basin Plan,
but it's not for tomorrow, it's a timed thing that's going to be implemented by the Basin
Governments, based on their request and only under their direction - calmly, sensibly and
in a measured way to make sure whenever we use water, that we're doing so with an eye
on making that water use the most efficient we possibly can.