Newly-appointed Murray Darling Basin Authority (MDBA) chairman, Craig Knowles, who was NSW Natural Resources Minister and worked with Mr Anderson on the NWI in 2004, says economic and social impacts can be accommodated without changing the act.

Mr Knowles replaces former MDBA chairman, Mike Taylor, who clashed with the Federal Government over the interpretation of the Water Act, arguing that the Act dictated that environmental flows could not be compromised to mitigate social or economic impacts.

“It is about time somebody stood up for Mike Taylor,” Mr Anderson told The Land.

“He was my departmental secretary and I held him in great regard – if he felt contained by the Act, then I regard the Act as flawed,” he said.

Mr Anderson said the controversial “guide to the plan” should be tossed out.

“Frankly, they ought to go back and look more closely at NWI and then redesign the MDBA plan in light of that,” he said.

“NWI was a federal initiative that I put together in response to the legitimate and very real concerns expressed by the National Farmers Federation in 2001 when proposed cuts of the very sort that are now being talked about were first mooted,” he said.

“The other value that is not being fed into this equation now is that we feed tens of millions of people who are not Australians.

“The whole thing needs rebalancing – politicians talk about moral challenges, and we need to recognise that we feed human beings across the world, not just Australians,” he said.

Mr Anderson said Mr Knowles was “an invaluable ally” creating the NWI because he had a background as a valuer and “grasped the essentials”.

“If it is a Labor appointment, it is the best appointment I have seen them make,” Mr Anderson said.