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Labor fails on Snowy flow targetsThe Victorian Government and Gippsland East MP Craig Ingram have allowed the restoration of the Snowy River to become mired in legal process and have no intention of returning a full environmental flow to the river, says MP Philip Davis. By Kevin Balshaw - 1st March 2010 - Back to News The Member for Eastern Victoria, Philip Davis, says the Victorian Labor Government and Gippsland East MP Craig Ingram have allowed the restoration of the Snowy River to become mired in legal process and have no intention of meeting the promise to return a full environmental flow to the river.
After drawing attention to low flows and the degraded state of the Snowy in Parliament at the start of last September, only now has Mr Davis received a formal reply, and he says it is legalistic and evasive.
"The position of the Victorian Government has changed dramatically since the gung-ho approach of its early years when in association with Craig Ingram it repeatedly pledged to restore the Snowy progressively by 2012 and enshrined the pledge in legislation," Mr Davis said.
"The reality bears no resemblance to the pledges. The flow in the Snowy remains a meagre 4% of the original and the target of a 28% environmental flow continues to recede into the distance.
"Victoria, with the Commonwealth and New South Wales, provided $425 million to manage delivery of the 2012 target, but on a value for money assessment that has proved a complete waste."
In the Government’s reply, the Minister for Environment and Climate Change, Gavin Jennings, makes it clear Victoria will stand by an intergovernment agreement called the Snowy Water Inquiry Outcomes Implementation Deed.
Mr Jennings said that within the terms of the deed "all environmental flows allocated for release to the Snowy River have been made".
But Mr Davis said the imposition of "dry inflow conditions" under the deed to protect the Snowy Hydro Scheme meant no environmental water had been released into the Snowy for the past three years.
The deed includes an arrangement that environmental flows into the Snowy between 2002 and 2005 were regarded as a loan from the Snowy Scheme, which would have to be repaid in later years.
"The method of repayment is to take the water out of the Snowy’s environmental entitlement and retain it in the Snowy Scheme," Mr Davis said. "The declaration of dry inflow conditions allows only the basic 4% of normal flow in the Snowy, and all water available above that amount has to be withheld to pay back the debt.
"The Victorian Government is a willing victim of a highly restrictive legal agreement between the three governments that has plugged any additional flow that could have been provided in the Snowy.
"It has taken an entirely passive approach when what it needs is for pressure to be put on New South Wales in particular to secure a better deal for the Snowy — one that will restore the promised environmental flow.
"But that remedy remains as distant as ever, and the Government’s statement has done nothing to provide reassurance the present situation will change."
Source: http://gippsland.com/ Published by: kevin.balshaw@parliament.vic.gov.au
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