Budget allocated hardly any new money for River Murray

The above is a headline from the Adelaide Advertiser and is available to read in the Shared Items alongside this blog. I remain absolutely aghast and it is time that the population of Australia started to deliver the message more aggressively.

Channels like the one that appear in the heading of this blog are literally covering the Murray Darling Basin in Queensland, Victoria, and New South Wales. South Australia removed their Channels some 30 years ago. The saving in lost water from evaporation and seepage would indeed go a long way to reinstating environmental flow, as a minimum, to the River Systems. Infrastructure programs to put these channels into pipes, incentive programmes to encourage better farm practice and incentive programs to remove agriculture and horticulture that require flood irrigation techniques would go even further to correcting the problem.

The employment opportunities in creating these infrastructure programmes are enormous and the benefit to Australia's GDP even greater.

The dozen's of projects that have been presented to the Murray Darling Basin Authority, over decades, to further consider environmentally friendly Flood Mitigation Programmes from Northern Rivers that would again deliver more than enough water to the basin have fallen on deaf ears for too long.

We must bring this matter to the urgent attention of the Prime Minister, Senator Penny Wong and Peter Garrett MHR and it is time that they actually did something about fixing this crisis

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?

Well Nick pulled it off - but it still only scratches the surface

You have to know I think this stand was quite good. The Federal Government has been conveniently avoiding this issue and Senator Sherry's little bleat we are handling it elsewhere does not cut the mustard. Well done Senator Xenophon at least we have some action.

It actually intrigues me that it was Senator Sherry who open fired on Nick Xenophon - surely it should have been Senator Penny Wong. Dear Ms Wong where is the longer term fix for this what strategy is taking so long and why can't we start capturing some of this damaging floodwater and firing it into the Murray Darling Basin and when are you going to take serious steps to rebalance the stupid overallocations in some of the upstream regions.

In the meantime in the face of the nation Senator Nick Xenophon has actually achieved something that has not happened ever - action on the River system

Mr Xenephon I am very proud of you.

I have previously been most critical of Mr Xenephon in this blog. Click the heading on this blog to find out why I am actually pleased. It is great to see him stand firm on this matter. If the Murray Darling is not essential Infrastructure what is it. The basin produces a very large portion of Australian Food Exports and the Government lethargy on this matter is most frustrating.
For Senator Nick Sherry to say the Government is handling this issue elsewhere is pathetic, when are we going to hear about it - this matter has raged on for months,years and decades and now whilst in spending mode why not on the Murray Darling Issue. When are you going to do this or are you simply going to allow the whole basin disintegrate into an Economic and Environmental disaster.
Good on you Nick - it is time to make the Government accountable for the lack of infrastructure spending that could fix this problem once and for all.

Murray-Darling talks too future focused: Parish

Will some one please listen to this man. Follow this link or the article in the shared items alongside to read what the Chief of the Central Irrigation Trust has to say. At last lets talk about now and how to get a fair deal for all along the river - environment included. Peter Garrett visits the lower lakes and suggests yet another study, Penny Wong is missing in action. All the while whole sections of the River (large contributor to Australian economy) economy is being brought to its knees.

The inaction is close to criminal negligence.

New Authority takes control of the Murray Darling Basin

So today is it the Murray Darling Basin is now in control of the new Federally managed independent authority

(See the attached article)

I look forward to some decisive action to create an equality in water usage across the entire system for all.

Yes there will be winners and losers but that just has to be to allow each state and stakeholder an equitable opportunity.