NSW minister altered Barwon-Darling water-sharing plan to favour irrigators
Written by Anne Davies
Exclusive: documents show Katrina Hodgkinson changed plan to allow irrigators to extract 32% more after industry ramped up its lobbying
A water-sharing plan for the Barwon-Darling was altered by the former New South Wales minister for primary industries, Katrina Hodgkinson, even though public consultations on the draft plan had ended and her bureaucrats had already submitted a draft for her to sign.
The changes made it more favourable to irrigators and delivered valuable additional water during low flows. According to some modelling it may have increased legal extractions by irrigators by 32%.
Related: Murray-Darling basin plan could collapse if changes blocked, Coalition says
In hindsight we were naive and negligent in that we took our eye off the ball
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