Over the border in NSW, the Barwon and Darling rivers are a series of muddy pools, and fish are dying

This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

These photos were taken by the Centre Alliance senator Rex Patrick from a light plane over southern Queensland near Goondiwindi, on Wednesday.

They show rivers such as the Condamine relatively full, and storages on cotton farms holding thousands of megalitres of water.

Yet three hours away in north-west New South Wales, the Barwon and Darling rivers are a series of muddy pools.

Darling River crisis: the farms without safe drinking or washing water Read more

Fish are dying in their hundreds of thousands at Menindee and people living in towns and on properties along the Barwon-Darling are battling to secure water fit to drink, bath in and feed their stock.

Play Video 0:44 More dead fish surface on the Darling River at Menindee – video

On Thursday the South Australian royal commission into the Murray Darling Basin plan is expected to deliver a scathing assessment of the plan that was meant to save the river system from ecological disaster.

The commissioner, Bret Walker SC, is expected to say that the $13bn plan is in breach of the Water Act 2007 because it was a political compromise that took into account factors other than the needs of the environment when setting the targets for recovering water from irrigators.

From the air, if anyone is making the claim that there is no water in Queensland, they are misinformed Rex Patrick

He is also expected to provide a savage assessment of how the plan has been administered by state and federal bureaucrats, and to strongly criticise recent amendments that further weakened the environmental targets in the plan.

The drought has undoubtedly played a part in the unfolding crisis in NSW. But Patrick’s photos show there is still water in the system: water that is allocated to irrigators and which will be used to finish cotton and other irrigated crops.

“From the air, if anyone is making the claim that there is no water in Queensland, they are misinformed,” said Patrick.

“When we left Dubbo, there was 1,165ML of flow. Three hours north [where the river joins the Barwon-Darling system], there were no flows between irrigated farms. The NSW situation is that water is being released but only for irrigators.”

“Further north in Queensland the Condamine River is relatively full, then south of a big irrigated property there is just a patchy river,” he said.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Water storages in the Darling Downs in southern Queensland. Photograph: Rex Patrick

“We were told that one large store of water was on a property last week, but it is now gone, used to irrigate a cotton crop that might not survive. We saw multiple storages full of water,” he said.

Patrick stressed the irrigators were not doing anything illegal. They were simply doing what they were entitled to do under the plan: taking and storing their water allocations.

But he said this underscored the failures of the Murray-Darling Basin plan.

“If there had been priority given to humans, we would not have these problems,” he said.

Murray Darling Basin Plan breaches Water Act, royal commission to find Read more

“I understand there are a number of stakeholders in the plan, but we haven’t prioritised the stakeholders who need it most.

“Maybe instead of saying: let’s grow cotton because it brings in the most money, maybe what we need to say is what’s the most sustainable use of water, what gives us food security, what provides for humans, rather than just profit,” he said.

Patrick called on politicians “to get out to all four corners of the basin and see what is really happening first hand”.

“This is flawed implementation of a flawed plan. To make it work, there has to be losers and that means hard choices need to be made. It requires leadership or we are facing a disaster.”

Facebook Twitter Pinterest An aerial photograph of cotton growing in southern Queensland. Photograph: Rex Patrick

Patrick said he had visited the vast Cubbie Station on the border of NSW and Queensland, which is often blamed for the problems in the river system.

“Cubbie didn’t have any water in storage. They showed us around, and they showed us their techniques for managing water within the rules and entitlements,” he said. “It was a highly professional operation.”

“Cubbie is not the problem; it is a symptom of the problem. We allow them to do this under the plan. They are operating within the rules.”

Meanwhile the Greens senator Sarah Hanson Young has accused the federal water minister, David Littleproud, of hiding key documents that detail why the Menindee Lakes were drained as the drought began to take hold.

Hanson Young asked for documents, using a Senate order for production. The documents were due in November.

The pipeline plan that will drain the lower Darling River dry Read more

In a letter she received on Wednesday, the Department of Agriculture and Water Resources said the Murray Darling Basin Authority was still searching for documents. It said it found no relevant documents in the department.

“While fish continue to die in their thousands in the lower Darling, the minister is in contempt of the Senate by refusing to release the requested documents,” Hanson-Young said.

“I requested these documents in November because I was deeply concerned about why these decisions were made. In the months following we’ve seen more than a million fish die across three mass fish kills and an environment in complete collapse.

“This stinks of a cover-up. What is the government hiding? Who is the minister protecting? It is clear the Liberal National parties cannot be trusted to act in the interest of river communities or manage the basin without kowtowing to the vested interests of corporate irrigators and their political donors,” she said.