Documents reveal $500m Broken Hill pipeline built for benefit of irrigators

Exclusive: Business case, which NSW government fought to keep secret, shows water security was not primary motivation for pipeline

A business case for the controversial $500m Broken Hill pipeline, released after a three-year battle, reveals the New South Wales government made almost no effort to evaluate the impacts of the pipeline on the lower Darling and instead put weight on how the pipeline would help the cotton industry upstream and mining ventures along the pipeline route.

The 2016 report, which had been kept secret until this week, will add to pressure on the government to respond to the findings of the Natural Resources Commission that water-sharing rules for the Barwon-Darling system in northern NSW are responsible for the environmental catastrophe at Menindee and a drought three years early in the lower Darling.