For a group of scientists who profess to have the interests of the Murray Darling Basin at heart, to produce a paper suggesting that the current cap on water diversions in the Murray Darling basin should be cut by 30% is disgraceful.

The Wentworth Group of Concerned Scientists today released a paper entitled “Sustainable Diversions in the Murray Darling Basin”, in which they state that in order to achieve their recommended cuts to water use, the required reduction in the Murray and Murrumbidgee catchments would be 39% and 65% respectively.

Member for Farrer Sussan Ley said the Wentworth Group’s extreme thinking and poor methodology should in no way contribute to current policy formulation.

“My real concern from this report is that Mr Rudd’s Water Minister Penny Wong will use it to direct the recommendations of the actual Basin Plan that is due to be released by the Murray Darling Basin Authority in the next few weeks” Ms Ley said.

“The effect of such deep and lasting cuts to farmers’ water allocations will have similarly deep and lasting ramifications on the towns in the NSW Murray and Murrumbidgee valleys” Ms Ley said.

The Wentworth Group says they have modelled the economic impact in the Murray and Murrumbidgee catchments and determined that the ‘reduction in profits would be in the order of 12% and 26% respectively’. They have described these as ‘potentially significant dislocations’.

“I would go further” said Ms Ley. I would describe profit reductions of 12% and 26% as impossible to survive for affected communities.”

The preferred option presented by the Group for achieving these reductions would see governments spending $3.9 billion to purchase 4 400 GL ($886/ML) and then allocating up to $5 billion for ‘infrastructure investment’.

“As usual the escape clause is for Governments to tip in a huge and unrealistic amount of adjustment funding, which we all know they would never do and if they did, would come nowhere near replacing the value lost” Ms Ley said.

“In this way the scientists can claim that they have our interests at heart. In fact they do not. They have only one objective and that is to tip the balance of the final Basin Plan even further away from the interests of farmers and rural towns and even closer to the riverine environment before white settlement.

“I call on the Rudd government to use evidence based science, proper economic and social policy analysis and genuine common sense in their final determination on sustainable diversion limits” Ms Ley said.