MEDIA RELEASE: Barnaby Joyce needs to show leadership on the Basin Plan

Today’s revelations about delays in implementation of the Murray Darling Basin Plan in Fairfax papers are part of a concerning trend of Federal neglect.
 
The Conservative Government needs to show leadership and get more water down the river.
 
If it is true that only $5 million of the $200 million in funding has been spent to remove constraints to allow the river to flow more freely, then Barnaby Joyce needs to explain himself to river communities.
 
This funding has been available for a number of years and the States have had the same amount of time to develop projects.
 
The Basin Plan was agreed by all Basin jurisdictions and voted on in the Federal parliament where it received bipartisan support.
 
Barnaby Joyce is either killing the Plan through neglect or actively destroying it.
 
The Plan is law, the systems are in place, the funding is available but the Deputy Prime Minister seems to want to renege on the bipartisan agreement made in 2012.
 
Labor will use Senate Estimates this week to get to the bottom of this critical issue.

SUNDAY, 22 OCTOBER 2017