Broadband - No water????

How come we can announce a Broadband Roll Out with no feasibilty study or Public Acceptance document in place. We can happily say we do not know who is going to invest and equally state that the blow out is in essence inevitable and normal for Government Projects.
We can liken it to the Snowy Mountains Authority Scheme and still we tell the Australian Public it is to expensive to pump from Northern Rivers into the Murray Darling Basin.
The Murray Darling Basin is one of the largest contributors to the GDP of this country and we have been "screwing" it up for decades.
If we simply pumped from the Northern Rivers while they were in flood and managed more strongly the allocations along the River we could - a) Create Jobs, b) protect an existing and growing portion of this Countries GDP, c)demonstrate responsible government in managing the environment.
In those three items alone surely the answer from Government that it is simply too expensive seems to be a very holey argument. In these time of Governments injecting money into the economy this makes a whole lot more sense than setting up a Broadband Network that Private Enterprise will roll out anyway as the need requires.
Enough talk more action.

The Silence is Deafening

I recently drove to Sydney and I have to say it just makes me cross. As you drive through the Riverina and witness the massive open Irrigation Channels you cannot help but think of the evaporation and seepage waste that goes on in this system. To witness out of date irrigation systems is so frustrating.
And then there are the floods in the Northern Rivers and remember the plans that I have seen for flood mitigation to be directed to the inland rivers which will simply assist in making the whole issue go away and the blood begins to boil.
Can anyone tell me why in this time of economic restructure that a Government sponsored redevelopment of these old and out of date systems cannot be seen as a very worthwhile way of setting Australia up for the future.
I am frustrated that we have heard nothing for months from Senator Wong who seems to have forgotten this is her portfolio as well as an elected representative of the people of South Australia who are suffering so badly.
The silence is killing us all - Did anyone here the penny drop?

Stop Third Party Bulk Storage First

So the opposition leader wants to lower the weirs to increase flow. It has some merit of course and will have an effect on flow.

Before we consider doing this why would we not look at stopping what you might call third party dams and storage facilities being used.

The amount of water that is being pumped to private dams and storage facilities is outrageous. If that is necessary one wonders at the viability of the crops that are being grown in those region.

If irrigators use the water as it is passing by then the flow with controls over allocations will also increase. The weirs of course were installed to ensure any water at all along the length of most of the rivers. Before the locks all of the rivers were more often than not dry in certain areas for significant periods of each year.

I find it difficult to comprehend storing water in dams for farming with, it is said, up to three years supply for some properties. The evaporation and seepage must be awesomely wasteful.I also find it difficult when it is reported that considerable of these facilities have been illegally constructed.

The infrastructure that the taxpayer has contributed to should be left alone in the first instance and the illegal on property facilities in inappropriate areas should be be removed immediately.

Federal Government Control is essential

Senator Penny Wong again comes out and says that a single controlling body must occur. The Federal Government has the power constitutionally to take that control in the National interest. There is sufficient precedent available in the takeover and control of the Franklin River in Tasmania many years ago.

Queensland comes out and defends the amount of irrigation water that has drawn this year because of the seasonal rains that have given the upper reaches significant inflows. I actually have no problem with the drawing of the water. The problem is that it has been drawn and is now being stored in artificial dams and we are told that some organisations have taken up to three years supply into their storage.

Reported (a University of NSW report)some months ago in this blog there are over 2400kms of illegal dams and levees in the NSW portion of the basin, this unnatural capture is wrong.

That is outrageous, the evaporation alone from those storage facilities is very likely to be more than the requirements to supply downstream needs.

If it flows by take what you need, storing it and allowing environmental disaster further down is the abhorrent part.

Dear Senator Wong please exercise your powers and allow the river to run and allow irrigators to use what is there while it is there. Storage of the magnitude that exists is foolish and selfish.

Rally for The Murray

On Friday the 1st August in Adelaide on the steps of Parliament House at 11:30am there will be a rally for the Murray. For the first time in my life I am going to attend this demonstration of the right of the peoples voice.

I have not written on this blog for a long time and that is simply because I have become so frustrated with the complete sham that Governments have been foisting on us all.

I have personally been writing articles and lobbying politicians for years now on this topic and all we get is toothless agreements,and meaningless platitudes from politicians whom seem to be taking great delight in watching the pain and suffering of the community and the environment. Yes it will take guts to make the radical changes that will be required, but water for the environment and the economies that were encouraged to utilize the resource must happen now - not in a years time or many years time. Now take control of all allocations and share it out fairly and equitably.

For our Governments to be critical of the global governments and the failure of the world to address climate and environmental issues merely displays the ignorance and hypocrisy with which the Governments of Australia sit idly by overseeing one of the greatest disasters that this nation may ever witness.

So yes I am driven to something I thought i would never do is swell the visible numbers standing in the street demanding and demonstrating that the environmental apathy that has been displayed over many generations must now stop.

Please join the voice of absolute abhorrence at the completely ineffectual efforts that are being directed at this issue. See you in the street.

Communities Die - while Kevin,Penny and Mike Fiddle

So the good Karlene gets handed the bitter pill of advising that a third of the Irrigation Communities could die if the dire situation does not change.

So after decades of inaction what are we still seeing, INACTION.

I would like to have one of our expert economists tell me exactly what the loss to GDP is going to be with the loss of Riverland and Lower Murray Production. What is it going to cost Australia and the state of South Australia. I fear the number might put yet another shiver into the future of the Australian Economy.

When are we actually going to see some action on returning wasted water to the River. Just buying water alone sure is not going to fix the problem - there has to be serious inroads into better water management NOW.

So put down the Violin and do something.

Water Down Under 2008

Today sees the beginning of the "Water Down Under 2008" conference. The major sponsors are The South Australian Government and SA Water. The Bureau of Meteorology and the National Water Commission are also major contributors. I really hope that this talk fest can actually assist in generating some positive steps to confronting the issues for the driest State in what is arguably the driest continent.

It is very important that these events are conducted, but what is very frustrating is the lengthy periods of inactivity in actually doing something.

Whilst this blog is directed at the Murray Darling Basin the issues are indeed much greater when taking a holistic perspective on the growth of Australia and the ready availability of the essential resource of water.

The obvious place to look particularly for South Australia is to remove our reliance on the River and protect our Primary Producers who depend on the River for their livelihood.

Brisbane must address it's domestic water issues as must most Capital Cities. Equally there are many country communities that are consistently walking a fine line on having sufficient water.

Yes we need answers, but most importantly we need action. Unfortunately there are decades of inaction that bring this to crisis point today.

Good luck with the conference - I look forward to hearing and seeing some positive outcomes.

Can legal cannabis crops help save the Murray? But what about the open Channels?

The NSW Government (click the heading for the link) has put up a wonderful idea. Hemp is a much underestimated crop and provides so many bi products that are valuable to our community lets get on with it. Fibre,oil and many other opportunities exist in growing hemp.It will need fabric industries and a whole range of support from big business to make it viable but hey lets actually get behind this idea.

It will save water!

On a less positive note however, this blog has been very critical of inaction in Victoria. I would really like to know when is the NSW Government going to bite the bullet and replace all of their open irrigation channels with piped water. The savings from seepage and evaporation alone will contribute an enormous amount of water saving for the Murray Darling Basin. Please do it now and unlike the Victorians actually return the water to the River system.

The question I still ask when the hell are we going to stop talking and start doing SOMETHING!!!!

COAG Conned - "The Sting"

It is fair to say that I think Mr Brumby has pulled the biggest con job of all time. As I have written previously the Murray Valley Basin modernization programme to be initiated by the Victorian Government is slated as saving 800 Billion Litres of water at a cost of $1billion. But of course that is 800 billion litres of water that is currently in the Victorian Quota. Therefore the 800 Billion Litres will not be returned to the River and is not accessible because the MOU says that Victoria can keep taking its quota until 2019. Will there be a Murray/Darling left by then?

Well done Mr Brumby you have scammed the system so well that not even your own Farmers Federation got the picture and were busily protesting your stupidity - or was this just a set up to pull off the whole sting.

Everyone is running around back slapping each other but secretly they still have not caught on that Victoria has just been paid $1billion to keep back 800 billion litres for their own use.

I will be interested to see what our pollies think when they work out how good a job Victoria has done on you all. Paul Newman and Robert Redford would be proud. Marvin Hamlisch/Scott Joplin a little of "The Entertainer" please.

Tim Norton an adviser for Australian Greens Senator Rachel Siewert has written a very good article over at the Blog Larvatus Prodeo. It is in my shared items here or follow this LINK.

Save the Murray Darling Basin

This has been a long and well documented track for as long as I can remember. I saw a paper recently with the appropriate apologies "Water Policy everywhere and not a drop to drink!".Mick Keogh, Executive Director, Australian Farm Institute writes quite an insiteful paper.

It is time that politicians faced this problem seriously and on this occasion actually do something. The millions of dollars spent on studies and still we are no distance down the track of fixing the issue.

Its time.