Craig Knowles said the authority was yet to hear how Victoria would respond to ... - Sydney Morning Herald

Craig Knowles said the authority was yet to hear how Victoria would respond to the cuts. Photo: Andrew Meares

THE head of the Murray-Darling Basin Authority will write to state ministers this week warning them that potential budget cuts will mean environment programs for the river will be axed and maintenance of dams and weirs threatened.

The authority, which oversees the river system, says if the Victorian government makes budget cuts like those recently announced by NSW and South Australia it will have to slash its operations further.

NSW cut its annual funding to the authority from $32 million to $12 million last July. The authority chairman, Craig Knowles, said NSW would make another cut from July 1 to $8.9 million a year, reducing its total contribution by more than 70 per cent.

The federal Water Minister, Tony Burke, called the cuts irresponsible. ''There is essential infrastructure which needs to be maintained and at some point in time these cuts will need to be turned around,'' he said.

''Ultimately the game that some state governments are playing simply means that by the time funding needs to be increased again, it may be more expensive than ever if the assets have been allowed to fall into disrepair.''

In a speech in Sydney on Friday, Mr Knowles said in a worst-case scenario there could be insufficient funds for planned maintenance and renewal programs on infrastructure such as dams, weirs and locks. The ability to deliver water to irrigators and towns could be threatened.

''In the long term, this will mean the key assets will deteriorate and will pose a greatly increased risk to downstream populations,'' he said.

After NSW's cut last year, state governments axed a native fish strategy for the river system, and an audit of the health of its water, plants and fish.

SA has signalled that it will halve its contribution from July next year, which would strip another $14.3 million.

Victoria has not indicated that it will cut its contribution. A spokeswoman for the Water Minister, Peter Walsh, said his views had not changed since previously questioning whether the authority should continue to pay for some programs in SA in light of that state's cuts.

Mr Knowles said the authority was yet to hear how Victoria would respond to the cuts but said: ''Given that they are now giving a big cross subsidy to NSW and, in the future to SA, in what for 100 years has been a shared responsibility, it can't be too long before they too follow this race to the bottom.''

The authority has been assessing future budget scenarios and what could and could not be funded. Mr Knowles said if other states cut funding by 50 per cent, all programs beyond maintenance and operation of dams and weirs would go.

If other states followed NSW's 70 per cent cut, there would be insufficient funds for planned maintenance and renewals programs of weirs and dams. Ultimately, the states will decide what programs are axed, and Mr Knowles said he had yet to hear back on a review of the authority's future which the states commissioned in July.

The healthy rivers campaigner for the Australian Conservation Foundation, Jonathan La Nauze, said: ''As Mr Knowles has pointed out, the recklessness of NSW in cutting funding to the MDBA set off a domino effect which still has some way to run.

''Any farmer knows you can't run down your infrastructure and expect it to keep working. This is a problem which the states and the Commonwealth must fix as a matter of urgency.''