Barnaby Joyce tilted the Murray-Darling Basin Authority towards irrigation interests over the environment when he was agriculture minister, the former director of the National Farmers’ Federation has claimed.

Mal Peters, a highly regarded figure in rural politics who chaired the authority’s own advisory committee on the northern basin, says the authority, post-Joyce, remains “extremely reticent to make tough decisions”.

And he warns the proposed changes to the plan in the northern basin – a 70-gigalitre cut to the environmental water recovery target that his advisory committee did not support – will mean the Darling River will run dry one year in three.

“Without protection of environmental water and ensuring environmental outcomes, I struggle to see the point of the plan,” he says in a written witness statement to the South Australian royal commission into the Murray-Darling basin plan.

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“When I started as chair, I had the impression that the MDBA was motivated by finding a balance between competing environmental, social and economic outcomes,” he said.

“However, it was my observation and impression that the MDBA’s direction changed when Barnaby Joyce became minister for agriculture and water resources. At that time it appeared to me that the MBDA [sic] shifted its approach further towards irrigation interests.”

He also slammed the authority’s decision not to take account of the 2012 Barwon-Darling water-sharing plan put in place by the New South Wales government, which has allowed irrigators to pump environmental flows travelling down the river during low flows.

Peters said the failure of the MDBA to adjust its modelling to take account of this plan, the formulation of which is now under investigation by the NSW Independent Commission Against Corruption, meant the modelling was unreliable.

Peters’ harsh assessment of the authority’s performance when Joyce was minister from 2013 to 2017 was echoed in submissions from other members of the advisory committee and raises serious questions about the latest amendments to the plan and their scientific underpinnings.

The amendments cut the number of water entitlements that need to be bought back from farmers under the plan and instead propose using water more efficiently to achieve comparable environmental outcomes.

“Towards the end of the northern basin review, I recall some MDBA modellers gave a presentation to the committee and explained how a certain model would reflect environmental outcomes being achieved in particular valleys,” Peters said.

“Our observation was that the modelling suggested very few environmental targets would be met. I recall that that modelling was based on the assumption that the full northern basin recovery target of 390GL would be applied.”

Peters said over time he developed the view that MDBA staff were rejigging the models to get their desired outcome.

He said the advisory committee became increasingly frustrated that water, having been taken away from northern irrigators for the purpose of the environment, was being pumped by irrigators downstream under plans like the NSW Barwon-Darling water-sharing plan.

Peters said the final water-sharing plan contained changes that went beyond what was consulted on and that he considered that the NSW minister – at the time Katrina Hodgkinson – was ultimately responsible for those changes that were made without consultation.

The changes included allowing irrigators to use larger pump sizes to extract water from the river and pump during low flows, he said.

The latest criticisms coincide with the NSW ombudsman’s release of its final report into the state government’s failure to adequately enforce water laws, as highlighted in the ABC’s Four Corners program.



It highlighted allegations of water theft in the Barwon-Darling. Two cotton irrigators – the Harris and Barlow families – are now being prosecuted.

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NSW has now set up an independent body that is responsible for ensuring compliance by irrigators.

The ombudsman’s November 2017 water investigation progress report highlighted almost 20 occasions over two decades when the responsibility for managing ground and surface water resources was moved from one government agency to another.

These, combined with internal restructures, had a devastating impact on staff, continuity of service, retention of expertise and the ability of the responsible agencies to maintain their systems and corporate strategy, the ombudsman said.

The ombudsman found that the new customer focus of WaterNSW had affected the compliance function and “there was no meaningful policy statement to guide staff on the key role compliance plays in protecting the state’s water resources and what customer service looks like in the enforcement context”.

But the ombudsman found no evidence that the strategic investigations unit, responsible for taking actions against major breaches, was improperly disbanded or that its staff were transferred to WaterNSW in retaliation for raising allegations and complaints.

Peters and another northern basin advisory committee member, Geoff Wise, are giving evidence to the royal commission next week.