BASIN CONSULTATION PROCESS A SHAM FROM THE START

Letter to the Editor

BASIN CONSULTATION PROCESS A SHAM FROM THE START 

Farmers and communities right across the Murray Darling Basin will be reeling in shock this week along with feeling a lot of anger, sadness and indeed hopelessness at the shocking revelation by the MDBA that they intend to lodge the plan in pretty much its original format.

The Federal Government along with the MDBA should hang their heads in shame in proposing such a disgraceful and disgusting plan. I for one am completely gob smacked that they have not paid any attention to all the thousands of submissions lodged by farmers, Shire Councils, ordinary citizens like me, farming groups, State Governments plus many more.

I have had a bad feeling for some months now that this would be the outcome, but hoped and prayed it would not be.

What we are witnessing is a further destruction of the Murray Darling Basin irrigation scheme. A scheme which feeds 40 million people every day, grows an enormous amount of cotton and which 2.1 million directly rely upon.

We are seeing businesses close on nearly a daily basis, some of them large, most small to medium.

Our economy is in trouble, so we need all our countries assets producing at their peak to provide employment and try to stave off a recession.

By investing in infrastructure we can provide all the water the environment needs plus more, what we need is vision, determination and of course money.

The irrigation infrastructure has been left largely untouched since it was built 40-60 years ago.

Successive governments have been happy to charge for that water and reap the profits, it is time for those same governments to invest and secure Australia’s food production future along with the future of people living in the Basin.

Unfortunately what we have with the Federal Labor party and the MDBA are people with extreme narrow vision, very little idea about irrigation and really they should all be given the sack and we start again.

LET’S HOPE AND PRAY FOR A FEDERAL ELECTION REALLY SOON

Yours disgusted and dismayed

Peter Gilmour

Cobram