The importance of listening to people with ‘lived experience’ was highlighted during a meeting last week (Friday, August 11) to discuss the future of farming across northern Victoria and southern New South Wales.
Speak Up Campaign chair, Shelley Scoullar, and Upper Goulburn River Catchment Association spokesperson, Jan Beer, met with One Nation’s MLC for Northern Victoria, Rikkie-Lee Tyrell, with discussions centred on flaws with the Murray-Darling Basin Plan. The meeting was also attended by Geoff Kendell from Central Murray Environmental Floodplain Group and Sophie Baldwin from Southern Riverina Irrigators.
Mrs Scoullar said it was important for community groups to meet with parliamentary representatives to ensure they had a balanced view of issues being faced.
“Too often, our politicians meet with people in paid positions, who provide the answers that are required to ensure they retain their funding or position. They are not getting a ‘lived experience’ perspective on the Basin Plan.”
Mrs Beer added she was buoyed by Mrs Tyrell’s comment that “if you haven’t lived it, you can’t really know.”
“We know the devastation of flooding caused by holding too much water in dams. We know that due to constraints issues it is pointless recovering the massive water volumes that are being planned, because it is impossible to deliver them downstream. Mrs Tyrell acknowledged that governments must listen to people who are ‘on the ground’ and have a different understanding of Basin Plan implementation to those who live in cities and base their assessments on computer modelling,” Mrs Beer said.
Key messages delivered at the meeting included:
- Supporting Victorian Water Minister Harriet Shing in opposing water buybacks and ensuring the socio-economic neutrality test remains in place
- We should abandon water buybacks
- Abandon the constraints management strategy
- Acknowledge the Basin Plan’s adverse environmental impacts as well as adverse impacts on communities and Australia’s food production
Solutions presented to Mrs Tyrell included introducing a moratorium on water recovery until there is a review of Basin Plan modelling; reduce South Australia’s dependence on the Murray River, especially for industrial and domestic water; and invest in complementary measures that focus on outcomes, not volumes. Mrs Tyrell was also encouraged to ensure One Nation recognised the issues around floodplain harvesting in the Northern Basin and supported Water Resource Plans that would protect flows to Menindee Lakes and beyond.
“It was a positive meeting and we welcome the support of One Nation to deliver a better Basin Plan,” Mrs Scoullar said. “Too many mistakes have been made in its implementation over the past decade because politics has been put ahead of our communities and environment. Unfortunately, under the current federal government, that has not changed.”
Mrs Beer said all communities are seeking is the fair and balanced plan that was originally promised.
“The major parties are frightened of the political ramifications if they don’t bow to the demands of South Australia, even if it is to the detriment of other rural communities, the national economy and food security. It is therefore important that minor parties like One Nation are well versed on what is required to improve the Basin Plan. We welcomed the opportunity to meet with Rikki-Lee Tyrell and have open dialogue,” Mrs Beer said.
This article appeared in The Koondrook and Barham Bridge Newspaper, 24 August 2023.
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