BARWON MP Roy Butler is pushing for an ICAC investigation into the operations around Toorale Station’s man-made floodplain.
Mr Butler has put a submission to the Independent Commission Against Corruption about the diversion of the Warrego River to the station.
“We’ve written so many times to state and federal ministers of both the Liberal/National and Labor governments saying we’ve got concerns about what’s happening,” Mr Butler said.
“The way that they’re accessing water out of the Warrego is that essentially the river gets diverted onto the western plain.
“The rule is now if you can’t meet (measure your water usage), you can’t pump.
“So they’ve come up with creative models for how much water they pump but the fact is – it’s a guess.
“There’s no metering.”
Mr Butler said there were concerns when the government took ownership of the land of Toorale in 2008.
“The Federal Government gave money as well because they can’t actually own land like that,” he said.
“So then the Federal Government paid for the water entitlement and gave that to the Commonwealth Environmental Water Holder so they became the account holder.
“The Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water, and the New South Wales Office of Environment and Heritage were operating the property.”
The station was decommissioned in 2008 which included 8122 megalitres of unregulated water entitlements on the Warrego River.
The NSW Parks and Wildlife Service then took control of the land and the station’s water licences were transferred to the Commonwealth Environmental Water Holder, but both agencies have continued to use the dams to divert water out onto the man-made floodplain and restrict the Warrego’s flows into the Darling River.
Mr Butler said the property had nine water licences and no visibility on what is used in those licenses.
“They’re operating in a way that no one else can operate – so no irrigator or water access license holder can just divert a river onto a flood plain without metering it,” he said.
The NSW Natural Resources Access Regulator launched an investigation into the property’s water usage in May this year.
“We lost the jobs on Toorale and the idea was that the silver lining was that we would have more water put back into the river,” Mr Butler said.
“But at this point we’ve got no measure of how much water is coming out of the river and certainly the belief of everyone, I speak to, is not enough water is going back into the river.”
