By Ron Pike
Background: The incursion of the Federal Government into the State’s constitutional right to the management of rivers and their water; was the result of sensationalist and mostly false claims made during the millennium drought. Emotional sophistry replaced truth and reason as it was claimed that our rivers were dying as the result of extraction by irrigators and lack of flow in the Murray was the cause of hyper salinity in the Coorong. Claims of dying river red gums, drying wetlands and species loss were repeated with graphic but mostly misleading detail.
The Result: Is a Plan that that is costing Governments both revenue and credibility as regional communities across the whole MDB are regressing. The businesses that grow, process and transport our food and fibre are being destroyed by the removal of the vital input of water and the Government inspired racket called the water market. Incredibly, the Plan is badly impacting the environment it is supposed to be assisting and genuine environmental issues are not being addressed. Empty Dams, dry Rivers, communities without drinking water and dead aquatic fauna is the result.
