01/04/2005 - Today's decision
to slash the budget of the Murray-Darling
Basin Commission will delay or put at risk
a range of vital environmental projects in
the Basin, the Australian Ministers for Agriculture,
Warren Truss, and the Environment, Senator
Ian Campbell, said today.
The decision comes following insistence by
New South Wales that it would only contribute
funding to the Commission at 2003-04 levels
for the 2005-06 year. All other states and
territories except Victoria were prepared
to make higher contributions to help keep
the Commission's busy work program on schedule.
"As a result, contributions to the Murray-Darling
Basin Commission (MDBC) will fall from a proposed
$100.3 million to $88 million during the next
financial year," Minister Truss said.
"Without adequate funding, the Commission
will be unable to fund agreed programs to
reduce salinity levels and to boost delivery
of environmental and water management projects
to the Murray-Darling Basin."
Mr Truss said the MDBC would draw on its
last remaining reserves and some carryover
funds in an attempt to reduce the impact of
the budget cuts.
"If such low budget contributions were
to continue into future years, the Commission's
capital works program would soon cease.
Senator Campbell said: "This is simply
not good enough, and it comes at a time when
several MDB Initiative programs - including
the $150 million Environmental Works and Measures
Program - are about to ramp up their construction
phase."
The MDBC has advised that around $12 million
worth of programs and projects will be delayed
or reduced in scope to meet the budget requirements,
including:
constructing Phase 2 of the Waikerie Salt
Interception Scheme at Waikerie in South Australia
- designed to stop an additional 23 tonnes
of salt from entering the River Murray each
day;
the Daughterless Carp project - part of the
Native Fish Strategy, which aims to reduce
carp numbers in the Basin's rivers;
constructing a 'fishway' at Lock 1, Blanchetown,
South Australia - part of the Living Murray's
Hume Dam to the Sea Fish Passage program.
In spite of their public commitment to the
environment, the decision demonstrates a lack
of real commitment to the Living Murray on
the part of some states, Mr Truss and Senator
Campbell said.
