SENATE Select public hearings were also held in Renmark, Broken Hill and Griffith in NSW, Echuca and Shepparton in Vic, St George, Qld, and in Canberra, ACT.
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Chair David Leyonhjelm, NSW, and senators Bob Day, SA, John Madigan, Vic, and Matthew Canavan, Qld, with secretary Mark Fitt, ACT, have attended the meetings since the inquiry started, while senators Robert Simms, SA, and Anne Urquhart, Tas, joined the panel in SA.
Sen Day said the meetings were organised after uproar about extensive licence buybacks and the impacts the environmental water had on river communities.
He said the plan was meant to have a balance of environmental, economic and social outcomes.
“But from what we have heard at these public hearings is that the plan is basically 90 per cent environmental and only 10pc social and economic,” he said.
“The social impact of communities being devastated has been given no weight at all because of the overwhelming dominance of environmental considerations.”
The SA meetings were the final public hearings, with the Senate Select Committee expected to meet state governments and other agencies in Canberra in February.
After which, the committee will present a final report to the Senate in March.
“We have gathered evidence from throughout the basin – it has been an extensive exercise,” Sen Day said.
“The MDB Plan is a multi-billion dollar exercise, covering millions of people, and four states. But there is still quite a bit of money available to be spent on infrastructure within the basin.
“Even at Goolwa, quite few infrastructure solutions came out of that meeting, including a Lake Albert-Coorong connector and a possible redirection of the South East drainage system.
“We will not hesitate to use our crossbench influence to push Federal Water Minister Barnaby Joyce into considering these recommendations seriously.”
