This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

A cotton farmer who has pleaded guilty to pumping over 153-Olympic-swimming-pools-worth of water from the Barwon River in western New South Wales during a dry spell in 2015 says he did so because he was assured by the then NSW minister for water, Kevin Humphries, there was no embargo.

The revelations are contained in Anthony Barlow’s sentencing submission to the NSW Land and Environment Court. The sentencing hearing was held last week and he is now waiting to learn his fate.

Barlow could face nearly $750,000 in fines but he argues that the court should show leniency because he relied on the advice of Humphries who attended a meeting of the Barwon-Darling Water Users group in March 2015.

His recollection of the conversation, which is detailed in the submission, is backed up by notes taken by departmental officials and the minutes of the water users group, also referenced in the submission.

Bourke cotton farmers to challenge water laws they are accused of breaching Read more

Questions about Burren Downs, owned by the Barlow family, were first publicly raised by the Four Corners program, Pumped, in 2017, which focused on water compliance in the Murray-Darling Basin.

They were then raised in the NSW parliament.

“What steps has the government taken to investigate allegations that when the member for Barwon was minister for water he gave a room full of irrigators permission to pump water despite a ban being in place?”, the former Labor leader Luke Foley asked.

The Nationals leader, John Barilaro, said “referrals have been made to the Independent Commission Against Corruption”.

At the time Humphries denied he made the remarks and said Foley was wrong but the submission will again raise the question about his role as NSW’s water minister from 2011 to 2015. He is not recontesting the seat of Barwon at this March’s election.

The South Australian Royal Commission into the Murray-Darling Basin raised serious concerns about NSW’s administration of the basin plan, and in particular the development and enforcement of the water-sharing plan in the Barwon-Darling.

At the time Humphries said: “The opposition leader made an inaccurate claim that I informed a group of Barwon-Darling irrigators that they could access water during a water embargo.

“The meeting that actually took place was in Bourke early 2015 and at no stage did I articulate such a claim, as anyone who attended will confirm.”

Damning Murray-Darling report says NSW 'well behind' on water-sharing plans Read more

But Barlow has produced a detailed recollection in his affidavit. He says he attended the meeting of cotton growers in Bourke on 25 March 2015.

One water user advised the group he had been told by Humphries there was “no embargo on pumping on the Barwon-Darling”, even though the embargo had been declared in February and advertised in the Government Gazette.

The minister then attended and spoke at the meeting, Barlow said. According to Barlow “he [Humphries] made repeated statements to the effect that ‘there is currently no embargo on the Barwon-Darling’.”

Barlow also recalled Humphries saying: “It is on a flow-by-flow basis and if there is a requirement downstream for water, if a flow is deemed to be beneficial, it will be embargoed but if it is isn’t it won’t be embargoed.”

At the time Broken Hill, which draws its water supply downstream from the Menindee lakes, was in danger of running out of water.

Barlow said his account was corroborated by minutes taken by the water users group and by handwritten notes taken by Andrew Scott, a bureaucrat from the NSW Office of Water.

A second case against Bourke cotton farmers Jane and Peter Harris is being heard this week. The defendants have pleaded not guilty.