Show caption Dead fish in the Darling River at Menindee last week. Photograph: Mike Bowers/The Guardian Murray-Darling Basin Native title holders back Greens’ call for royal commission into Murray-Darling The Northern Basin Aboriginal Nations back Sarah Hanson-Young’s claim that Menindee fish kill is just the latest example of mismanagement Anne Davies @annefdavies Thu 17 Jan 2019 01.39 EST Share on Facebook

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The Greens will introduce legislation to establish a royal commission into the mismanagement of the Murray-Darling Basin when parliament returns in February, in the wake of the massive fish kill at Menindee last week.

The Greens environment and water spokeswoman, Sarah Hanson-Young, said she would move to set up the inquiry, which will have power to compel testimony from bureaucrats and ministers. The call has been backed by the Northern Basin Aboriginal Nations (NBAN), which claims native title holders have been left out of important decision-making about the Darling River.

But to have any chance of passing, the private member’s bill will need the support of Labor, which has so far backed the Murray-Darling Basin plan as the best way forward.

Labor’s spokesman on the environment and water is Tony Burke, who was minister in 2007 when the plan was finalised.

He was responsible for sealing the agreement with the states, and agreeing on the 2,750 GL target for recovery of water for the environment, a figure scientists now say is either the bare minimum needed for a healthy river, or too low.

Labor also backed amendments to the plan, supported by the Nationals and the Liberals but opposed by the Greens, that cut the water recovered in the northern basin.

“Everything that was put in place for the plan has made the situation better than it otherwise would have been,” Burke said on Monday when he visited Menindee. “Everything – there is not a single part of the Murray-Darling Basin plan that is a step backwards for the environment from where it was when I was water minister.”

But the Greens want to see a comprehensive inquiry in light of the fish kill.

'Bloody disgrace': '100-year-old' fish die in Darling River – video

“We have spent $13bn on the Murray-Darling Basin plan, yet the river system is in collapse,” Hanson-Young said. “This plan was put in place to fix the river, and cotton, corruption and climate change is killing it.

“We’ve heard evidence of meter tampering, water theft, children being hospitalised because of toxic water, cases of fraud, donation scandals and corruption. The mass fish kill that has struck the Lower Darling in recent weeks is just the latest in a long list of problems with the management of the Murray-Darling Basin.

“We urgently need a royal commission into the mismanagement and over-extraction of water in the Murray-Darling Basin. Australians deserve better, we need a healthy river – it is the lifeblood of our country,” she said.

The Northern Basin Aboriginal Nations have backed the Greens’ call, saying the Nationals’ stewardship has been akin to “Dracula in charge of the bloodbank.”

NBAN deputy chair, Ghillar Michael Anderson, and director, Cheryl Buchanan, said the disaster being experienced in the Murray Darling was not just due to drought.

“It is is also a culmination of man-made mismanagement… and major development without scientific evidence-based planning in the formative years of the MDBA,” they said.

The Aboriginal nations along the Darling have native title and have been demanding greater recognition of cultural flows associated with their title. The river is at the centre of the Barka people’s cultural beliefs, and the Barkinji around Wilcannia are literally “the river people”.

Yet they say they were excluded from the high level meeting convened by the Murray Darling Basin Authority and senior water managers.

“NBAN has great difficulty in understanding why the so-called expert water planners would attempt to normalise our current circumstances. First Nations now demand urgent answers and to be included in all future top-level water planning within the Murray Darling basin,” they said.

“The MDBA and state authorities in NSW are to blame for turning the Menindee Lakes native fish nursery area into the equivalent of a sewer,” they said.

“Surely commonwealth and state water ministers should understand that they no longer have carte blanche rights to leave First Nations Peoples out of future government planning not just for water, but also for biodiversity, ecology and everything to do with our culture as it relates to management of Country, which includes water as a vital component.”

The angry release comes after a major fish kill at Menindee Lakes which saw hundreds of thousands of fish killed. There are fears that another one is imminent, after the current hot spell ends.

But NSW state opposition leader, Michael Daley, who was in Menindee on Thursday, refused to back a federal royal commission, saying it was a matter for federal Labor and has instead proposed a state commission of inquiry with similar powers.

But as the South Australian government discovered, the federal government refused to allow federal bureaucrats or ministers to give evidence, including the MDBA staff.

Hanson-Young said the bill would be her first priority when parliament resumed.