Australia will be ''seriously embarrassed around the world'' if the Murray-Darling Basin Authority's controversial draft water plan goes ahead, a leading water economist says.
''It will lock us into failure - the design is wrong,'' executive director of the University of Adelaide's environment institute, Professor Mike Young, told a Senate rural affairs inquiry yesterday.
One of Australia's top hydrologists, former NSW chief scientist Professor John Williams, also told the inquiry the plan was ''misleading, simplistic and deceptive'' and should be withdrawn by the Gillard government.
Professor Williams, who recently retired as NSW Natural Resources Commissioner, told the Senate committee he was so alarmed by errors, omissions and ''poor science'' in the plan, he wrote directly to federal Environment Minister Tony Burke, calling for an urgent independent scientific review.
'' I think we're being sold a pup,'' Professor Williams said.
Canberra Times
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