The Snowy - starved by drought, over-extraction, indifference and greed

The problem for Victoria and the Commonwealth is exercising “shareholder” rights and powers. Victoria has apparently submitted to the NSW Government to act appropriately under the conditions of the Snowy Water Licence and release the Report of the Scientific Committee, however, the Commonwealth appears reluctant to act until the NSW Government officially publishes this report. The reality is that it should have been in the public domain since October.

There are undoubtedly punishments under the Corporations Law for Directors who act inappropriately and indeed, there are punishments under Section 34 of the Snowy Corporatisation Act 1997 No 99 for cumulative breaches of the Snowy Water Licence with a possible two-year prison sentence for Directors. That the NSW Government failed to establish the Snowy Scientific Committee, or commence the first Five Year Review of the Snowy Water Licence specified under the legislation, until brought to account by the community, is arguably a sufficient trigger for appropriate legal entities to take the responsible people to court - and under the legislation that could be either the State or Federal Court.

Snowy Hydro Directors are clearly aware of the legislation and the conditions of the Snowy Water Licence and will find their case a little shaky if they argue that “we weren't told or instructed” to release water into the Snowy River.

The Snowy communities have again risen to the challenge to return water to the Snowy River, urging the new Parliamentary Secretary and local Federal Member Mike Kelly to act on behalf of the river and ensure that the report of the Snowy Scientific Committee is made immediately available and that its recommendations are included in the first Five Year Review of the Snowy Water Licence. This would see critical environmental releases into the river and ensure at least a modicum of natural and variable flow vital for ecological health and survival.

The bottom line is to amend the Snowy Water Licence and enable environmental releases into the Snowy immediately. The Mowamba, or Moonbah, River is a key Snowy tributary that will deliver a virtual natural headwater to the Snowy River until such times more substantial flows are enabled through the Jindabyne Dam.

Additionally, there is a visible need to restore natural flows to the major alpine tributaries of the Snowy River as well as the Mowamba River and to revitalise the Snowy Montane Rivers nominated in the Snowy Water Licence.

The Snowy River has endured a long dry not just as a result of drought or climate change but because of over extraction and complex government processes which are apparently incapable of responding quickly to the river’s needs.

The evidence is that the Snowy River is in urgent need of environmental flows, natural variability and that the Snowy Water Licence must be adjusted and amended now, to reflect the recommendations of the Snowy Scientific Committee.

Dr Kelly’s appointment as Parliamentary Secretary for Water places him as the direct advocate for environmental flows for all rivers in Australia. It is high time that the Snowy River is included in conversations about over-extraction from the Murray Darling Basin. The Snowy River can no longer subsidise the Murray at the expense of its own health. There needs to be decisive strategic planning to ease extractive pressure on all river systems: and immediate strategic planning to prioritise key agricultural and environmental assets for conservation and restoration, as well as decommissioning of weirs and aqueducts responsible for the deterioration of wetlands, rivers and estuarine health including the demise of the Snowy River.

There is now an opportunity to place the Snowy Environmental Flows under the responsibility of an Independent Water Manager: a group of Snowy River Alliance Members advocated this position directly to the NSW Environment Minister Carmel Tebbutt when the Cabinet met the community in Queanbeyan a few weeks ago. This would mean that the Water Manager would instruct Snowy Hydro on water releases into the river. It would mean that the apparent nexus between the Minister for Energy and Snowy Hydro Directors would be at last broken and the litany of excuses including “the drought” and “no water in the river for the Snowy Scientific Committee to conduct its research”, the arguably nonsensical Mowamba Borrowings, unsupportable “Snowy Borrowings”, the latest impost of the 2010 date for the Murray Darling Plan and the fallacious “compensation to the Murray under the Water Management Act” would be dissolved and the Snowy would at last receive water.

That anyone could legislate that the Snowy River “owed” Snowy Hydro for water from the Moonbah River demonstrates the deep disconnect between some government departments and the realities of the natural world and the links between rivers, wetlands, estuaries, ground water and the vitality of the agricultural sector.

It is time that an Independent Water Manager (including the Murray Darling Authority) means just that - independent without control by governments who by their nature, depend on corporate donations to put them into power.