New South Wales water chief says he is disappointed by a lack of progress on prosecutions and recommends a ‘no metering, no pumping’ policy

Modern water meters need to be rolled out as a matter of urgency in the Barwon-Darling river system and prosecutions launched against breaches, the man charged with fixing New South Wales’s water administration has warned.

Immediately after the ABC Four Corners program that alleged large-scale water theft and meter tampering by some irrigators, the state government asked water expert Ken Matthews to review the system.

His interim report recommended establishing a natural resources regulator to police water laws and hire staff working in compliance. The government was quick to adopt both measures but, two months later, Matthews is sounding the alarm in his final report.

“I am disappointed that decisions have still not yet been taken about whether to proceed to prosecution in the several alleged cases of noncompliant irrigation activities aired in the Four Corners program,” he said.

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“The overwhelming honest majority of NSW irrigators take compliance seriously themselves and are firmly in favour of action against the small minority who may not be playing by the rules. They too, want the system fixed.”

So far there have been no prosecutions in relation to the matters aired in the Four Corners program, which included allegations of meter tampering and pumping of environmental water during periods of embargoes. Matthews said he had been told investigations are ongoing and decisions will be taken by February.

NSW’s record on action on water breaches is arguably the weakest in the country.

Matthews warned that community concern about water compliance shortfalls had, if anything, intensified.



“My overall assessment of progress to date is that the government was quick out of the blocks to accept the diagnosis and adopt the prescription. However, I am concerned that work on other elements of the total reform package is at risk of delay.

“I am concerned also about the risks of unwarranted watering down of the reform measures as implementation proceeds.”

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He noted that while 20 new staff had been assigned to water administration, funds had not been made available on an ongoing basis.

He warned that inter-agency boundaries, and organisational restructurings may, as has happened in the past, lead to an unsatisfactory or unworkable operational environment for compliance staff.



In particular he said he was concerned that metering and monitoring of water extractions in the Barwon-Darling “were not at the standard required for sound water management”.



In some parts of the Barwon-Darling system there is no metering at all, and the rollout of meters appears to have begun with smaller extractors. Other meters are old and are not able to send data back to base.

Matthews said it was imperative the NSW Department of Industry moved swiftly to introduce a “no metering, no pumping” policy.

Staff in the department responsible for the administration of water have also been sent to ethics classes as a result of the allegations on Four Corners, which included that staff had made certain government documents available to irrigators.



The then head of the Office of Water, Gavin Hanlon, has been referred to the Independent Commission against Corruption and has resigned. The contract of another executive staff member has been terminated.



The minister for primary industry, Niall Blair, said he intended to have a final plan to be signed off at the Murray-Darling ministerial meeting in December.



“I want to be very clear, the government is firmly committed to delivering these reforms for the good of the community and all stakeholders and there is no room for any delay.”