11 Oct, 2012 04:00 AM
THE Federal Senate’s Rural Affairs and Transport Committee released an interim report last week on the Murray-Darling Basin, which identified several failings in the planning process including the lack of detail, the lack of an environmental watering Plan and the lack of adequate socio-economic analysis.The Murray Group of Concerned Communities chairman Bruce Simpson said the Committee’s report highlighted the Basin Plan’s potentially negative impacts on rural communities.
“Unfortunately with regard to the socio-economic impact, the Committee recommendation is to ‘introduce support programs', for affected communities,” he said.
“The reality is that in areas like ours, where 90 per cent of business is directly reliant on irrigated agriculture, no support program will be big enough to replace a significant drop in productivity.
“Communities like ours don't want support, we want to remain vibrant, productive, self-sufficient communities.”
Independent MP Tony Windsor also took a swipe at Opposition Water Spokesman Barnaby Joyce over the Murray-Darling Basin Plan.
Senator Joyce criticised Mr Windsor for an apparent lack of transparency during a public hearing of Mr Windsor’s Regional Australia Committee last week.
The brief hearing was designed to look at Water Minister Tony Burke’s proposed amendments to the Water Act, to introduce an adjustment mechanism for Sustainable Diversion Limits in the Basin Plan that would be controlled by the Murray-Darling Basin Authority (MDBA) and not parliament, which farm groups have criticised.
Senator Joyce asked why Mr Windsor made the hearing closed to the public with no plans to take public submissions “and only hear in private the views of the MDBA and the relevant government department.
“There seems to be this great fear in the Green-Labor-Independent government, getting greater everyday, about this concept called democracy,” he said.
But Mr Windsor said in his haste to denigrate the Committee’s work and objectivity Senator Joyce had “once again proven he is more interested in perpetuating the problem rather than being part of a solution”.
Mr Windsor defended the Committee’s work saying its membership includes National Party, Liberal Party and government members.
“Senator Joyce has once again shot from the lip - and once again dribbled,” he said.
“Unfortunately with regard to the socio-economic impact, the Committee recommendation is to ‘introduce support programs', for affected communities,” he said.
“The reality is that in areas like ours, where 90 per cent of business is directly reliant on irrigated agriculture, no support program will be big enough to replace a significant drop in productivity.
“Communities like ours don't want support, we want to remain vibrant, productive, self-sufficient communities.”
Independent MP Tony Windsor also took a swipe at Opposition Water Spokesman Barnaby Joyce over the Murray-Darling Basin Plan.
Senator Joyce criticised Mr Windsor for an apparent lack of transparency during a public hearing of Mr Windsor’s Regional Australia Committee last week.
The brief hearing was designed to look at Water Minister Tony Burke’s proposed amendments to the Water Act, to introduce an adjustment mechanism for Sustainable Diversion Limits in the Basin Plan that would be controlled by the Murray-Darling Basin Authority (MDBA) and not parliament, which farm groups have criticised.
Senator Joyce asked why Mr Windsor made the hearing closed to the public with no plans to take public submissions “and only hear in private the views of the MDBA and the relevant government department.
“There seems to be this great fear in the Green-Labor-Independent government, getting greater everyday, about this concept called democracy,” he said.
But Mr Windsor said in his haste to denigrate the Committee’s work and objectivity Senator Joyce had “once again proven he is more interested in perpetuating the problem rather than being part of a solution”.
Mr Windsor defended the Committee’s work saying its membership includes National Party, Liberal Party and government members.
“Senator Joyce has once again shot from the lip - and once again dribbled,” he said.
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