While many praise NSW Deputy Premier John Barilaro's call to 'rip' up the Murrary Darling Basin Plan, he is urged to keep the momentum going by matching "his words with his actions".
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Mr Barilaro this week said "if we can't see a change in how the Murray-Darling Basin Plan is working for the people of NSW, forget pausing the plan, rip the bloody thing up and we will walk away," he said.
He continued to say the state should be "pausing all water sharing plans" while the drought continued, saying "we need to put people before the environment".
NSW Water Minister Melinda Pavey told parliament that they were currently awaiting government's legal advice on withdrawing from the plan.
Mr Barilaro characterised the problem as stemming from putting the river system's environmental flows over the needs of farmers and communities in regional NSW.
"The environmental flows is really, really upsetting so many irrigators, farmers and communities because it seems we have put flora and fauna in front of people," he continued.
His comments come less than three months after Premier Gladys Berejiklian recommitted NSW to implementing the plan at a meeting of the Council of Australian Governments in Cairns in August.
Member for Murray Helen Dalton has welcomed his call to pause the plan, a move which she says her Shooters, Fishers and Farmers party campaigned heavily on before the state election.
"I'm glad John Barilaro has seen the light," Mrs Dalton said.
"But the bizarre thing is John's government re-committed to the Basin Plan as recently as August, signing on to the Inter-government Agreement on implementing the Plan's goals.
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"And we heard former NSW Water Minister Niall Blair say we will, 'now start the process of withdrawing ourselves from the plan', back in February 2018... So I hope they finally back their words with action this time."
Ms Pavey was contacted by The Area News for comment on when the legal advice would be finalised, however was unable to respond, being in Israel looking at their water management in a bid to gain "valuable insights" into how NSW could improve water security and efficiency.
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