The Federal Government to spend another $400million

So again Senator Wong announces a further $400 million to buy back water. She hopes that it will add to the already acquired 39 billion litres of water already acquired.

I am not sure why Penny keeps talking in Billions of litres when the normal nomenclature along the River is megalitres.A cynical man might believe that talking billions makes it sound lots. So 39,000 megalitres have been acquired which is only about one third of what is required. $400million what will it buy and will it only force up the price for those who are trying to survive downstream.

The upstream problems are mainly caused by Bulk Storage in dams away from the River. This problem is still not being addressed. Any kind of drawing that is holding water in Dams away from the river for future proofing must be stopped. If the crop protection requires that kind of mass storage then it should not be allowed. Draw water as it passes by - the River has already put in place locks etc to assist in flow management and we the taxpayers have paid for all of that infrastructure.

Let the water in these private storage facilities go - take back control of allocations and the irrigators and towns who require water can then draw what they need as it passes - frankly capturing water, with as much as three years supply being held in some of these privately owned storage facilities, apart from being an environmental disaster is simply un-Australian. The need to manage water only as it flows by and travels the length of the river I am sure will give us back an appropriate amount of water for now. Then we look at supplemental flows like flood mitigation of Northern Rivers.