The report says the Federal Government has funded the construction of NSW bridges using money intended to generate water savings for the Murray-Darling Basin.
Mr Pitt described The Australia Institute as a left wing political organisation and said the report was filled with wild inaccuracies and needed to be retracted.
The Federal Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment published a ‘stocktake’ list of projects for the Off-Farm Efficiency Program, a $1.48 billion program designed to recover water for the environment through off-farm water efficiency projects.
This list included a proposal by Murray Irrigation Ltd to upgrade 416 public bridges along Murray Irrigation's channels to allow them to meet weight requirements. There was no suggestion of achieving water savings.
“The fact is not one bridge has received funding as part of water recovery efforts,” Mr Pitt said.
“Water recovery is a key component for any proposed project to be eligible to receive Commonwealth Government funding.”
The author of The Australia Institute report, Kate McBride, said using money that was intended to increase the amount of environmental water in the Murray to build unrelated infrastructure upstream would be a bridge too far.
After The Australia Institute report was released, the Murray Irrigation project mysteriously disappeared from the Federal Government's stocktake list.
Country News asked Mr Pitt's office who removed the bridge projects and why they were removed, but we have not received an answer.
Ms McBride told Country News she had no particular argument with upgrading bridges, but the point of the criticism was that they should not be funded out of water intended to improve environmental outcomes for rivers.
Asked about the status of the stocktake report, Mr Pitt told Country News the report, requested by the Murray-Darling Ministerial Council, was for the purpose of identifying infrastructure proposals that could provide regional stimulus, contribute to agricultural productivity and/or result in water savings across the basin.
“The report provides one avenue to explore off-farm projects in which 10 projects were identified as having the potential to start within three to 12 months,” Mr Pitt said.
“The report was not prepared for the sole purpose of identifying off-farm projects only. It will be one source of information to enable conversations with the states on potential off-farm projects.
“The Goulburn-Murray Water Water Efficiency Project has been approved and will recover 15 Gl per year for a total investment of $177.5 million. The funding request for this project was received in mid-2020.
"As the stocktake report was developed for a broader purpose, not just off-farm projects, it is not intended to be an exhaustive list.”
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