Fed: Political expediency behind Murray report: Lees

AAP General News (Australia)
04-06-2004
Fed: Political expediency behind Murray report: Lees

CANBERRA, April 6 AAP - A parliamentary committee that wants to delay plans to put
more water into the Murray River is putting political expediency over the plight of the
environment, a key senator said today.

Independent senator Meg Lees said an interim report by the House of Representatives'
agriculture committee was a political attempt to delay desperately needed assistance for
the Murray.

The report released this week calls on the government to postpone plans to pump an
extra 500 gigalitres into the Murray.

The committee, largely based on the advice of two dissenting scientists, said more
research had to be done on whether the water would actually benefit the river.

Only a Labor Party MP, Dick Adams, dissented from the majority view.

The 500-gigalitre proposal has already been endorsed by state, territory and federal governments.

Senator Lees, whose home state of South Australia relies largely on the Murray, said
the committee had ignored science clearly showing the river's plight.

She said the committee seemed only interested in looking after irrigators.

"In effect, the report says that irrigators should not return water to the river and
that their interests should be placed above the river's health," she said in a statement.

"Nowhere in the report is there any mention of irrigators needing to change their practices
to become more efficient in the way they use water."

Senator Lees said she was surprised a South Australian MP on the committee, Patrick
Secker, had backed the majority finding.

She said there were gaps in the scientific knowledge about the Murray, but not enough
to delay putting some water back.

AAP sw/sb/pw/de

KEYWORD: MURRAY LEES

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