AgForce not happy with Minister Palaszczuk

AgForce has criticized the Qld Government's Artesian Basin water plan.

ABC News reports:

AgForce says the Queensland Government's draft water resources plan for the Great Artesian Basin (GAB) is not based on sound science.

The Department of Natural Resources released the draft plan in February designed to manage resources for the largest underground water storage in Australia.

The department says it will only allow 24,000 megalitres of new allocations for feedlots, mining and irrigation.

AgForce's water spokesman Kim Bremner says it does not make sense.

"The estimates out of the draft plan show there's 6.5 billion megalitres of water in the basin," he said.

"Now, AgForce estimates that probably about 70,000 megalitres is being used at the moment and we certainly believe that with good science and the measurement of pressure, which is more important than the volume in the GAB, should be a better way of managing sustainable use out of the basin."

A spokesman for Natural Resources Minister Henry Palaszczuk says AgForce has already been granted an extension to reply to the draft water resource plan and claims by it that the plan has been rushed through are unfounded.

See - Agforce critical of Artesian Basin water plan.