NSW senior government water officials admitted in a meeting on the 10th of January that unregulated floodplain harvesting by irrigators in the Northern part of the drought-stricken Murray Darling river basin was illegal.
In minutes obtained by the NSW Shooters, fishers and farmers party, water officials outlined the legality of harvesting floodwaters, a common practice in the region which accounts for a significant portion of the water used by mostly cotton farmers in the northern part of the basin.
During the meeting, Daniel Blacker, the Department Of Planning, Industry and Environment's director for water programs highlighted the issues facing hundreds of irrigators in northern NSW stating that "stating that if you don’t have basic rights or an exemption, there is no ability to legally take water"
The practice has been closely linked with diminishing flows in southern parts of the river basin
As recently as 2018, the South Australian Royal Commission labelled floodplain harvesting as one of the most significant threats to water security in the Northern Murray-Darling Basin to both licence holders and downstream states.