The past Labor state government gave serious consideration to expanding Lake Buffalo.

I was involved in discussions between the minister for water John Thwaites, his successor Tim Holding and treasurer John Brumby around proposals to expand Lake Buffalo.

A thorough investigation concluded this was impossible, given restrictions imposed by the Murray-Darling cap.

This regulates the amount of water a state can “retain”, ensuring there is enough water left in the Murray to make it down to the sea.

If a state wishes to “keep” more water, it must release more elsewhere.

To give a practical example of how this works, releasing more water into the Snowy meant that Lake Mokoan needed to be drained.

“Big Buffalo” would necessitate water “savings” of a similar scale, probably involving draining a water storage like Lake Nillahcootie.

The federal and state Coalition are aware of this, yet they pretended that all that stood in the way was the “wrong” brand of government.

The promises they made about Lake Buffalo were dishonest.

They promised something they knew they were unable to deliver.

Millions of dollars have been wasted on investigations which only duplicated work already done, to come to a conclusion they knew was inevitable.

In the meantime, investment opportunities, which would have put the disused land around Buffalo to good use, have gone begging.

—ZUVELE LESCHEN,

Former federal candidate for ALP, Buffalo River