A parliamentary inquiry into the state of Tasmania's rivers is the only way to fully understand the impact of current and emerging industries on the state's water resources, according to the Tasmanian Greens.
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Greens leader Cassy O'Connor first began to hear about Tasmania's rivers' water quality about three to four years ago.
She said the party had sought information from former Primary Industries Minister Guy Barnett and Natural Resources Tasmania, formerly the Department of Primary Industries, Parks, Water and Environment, but had been up against "shady language" and actions that she describes as a reluctance to be transparent.
"We [in Tasmania] do not look after our water," she said.
"It [existing policy and legislation] is a complete mess and it's extremely worrying."
Ms O'Connor said she had attempted to discuss the issue with previous Premier Peter Gutwein, who she said had at least listened to her concerns, but she said she was still frustrated at the lack of action.
She said an inquiry would give everyone a fair idea of the river's issues and provide everyone with the information they needed to ensure sustainable future management of the resource.
The state government and the department have said that they are working to continue sustainable management through existing legislation and the relatively new Rural Water Use Strategy.
However, Ms O'Connor said this policy did not fully address the whole picture about water.
"It does not in any way address urban water use."
TasWater initially raised concerns with the former Minister regarding its exclusion and went so far as to write a letter saying the government should include urban water use in the strategy.
However, they have now changed their opinion, saying the state government had met urban water use and their concerns in the strategy. Urban water use was considered out of scope for the process. Other out of scope issues facing the rivers include water quality, which has now been added as a "new focus area".
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This week, the implementation plan was released publicly by Primary Industries Minister Jo Palmer.
The degradation of Tasmania's rivers has been detailed in an internal report prepared by NRE Tasmania but was not made public until the Greens requested a Right to Information request.
Another report, prepared this year by independent scientist and water ecologist Christine Coughanowr also found nearly half of Tasmania's rivers had experienced a level of ecological decline.
Both reports point to large-scale industrial activities, such as agriculture, mining, hydropower and the expansion of irrigation schemes as responsible for the ecological decline.
If Tasmania's rivers continue on this trajectory of decline, in-fighting and competition over the resource are inevitable. It will also likely see environmental destruction on the level of the Murray-Darling Basin.
Ms O'Connor said the evidence to show the degradation of Tasmania's rivers was staggering. It showed how important it was for this data and monitoring to be available to the public.
"If you look at the allocation of the total water source, about 52 per cent of it is allocated to agriculture, and only 10 per cent is allocated for potable drinking water," she said.
Ms O'Connor said it was a failure of the state government and the Environment Protection Agency on environmental regulation, which was why it required immediate action.
"River decline doesn't happen overnight, it's a slow process. We can't just sit here and watch it happen."
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