Promoting a political agenda that costs jobs and ruins the livelihoods of people in rural communities has been described as “a sad reflection on the priorities of our city-based political elite.”
Wakool River Association chair John Lolicato has slammed the selective approach to government and independent reports being taken by Federal Water Minister Tanya Plibersek, who he says “doesn’t seem to care about people, only her political agenda.”
“Plibersek, as she has shown, is an experienced and articulate politician. That is her strength. Her weakness is lack of compassion for fellow Australians impacted by the Basin Plan and an unbridled willingness to use selective data to promote a personal agenda at the expense of those who challenge her policies.
“She belittles reports which highlight the social and economic devastation to communities from the Basin Plan, in particular water buybacks, while ignoring government data which proves what buybacks have done to my community and many others.
“Might I respectfully request she carefully read and digest the MDBA’s independent panel assessment of social and economic conditions in the Murray-Darling Basin,” Mr Lolicato said.
In her foreword to this report, Chair Robbie Sefton stated, “as a panel, we were disheartened to see communities at a crossroads” and “we found many communities struggling, including some in dire circumstances.” Panel member Bruce Simpson lamented that towns were being left to die and there was a “clear decline in mental wellbeing of communities.”
Mr Lolicato said the MDBA’s own socio-economic community profiles show job losses, again primarily from water buybacks, at more than 3,200.
“And yet, the Water Minister, despite a multitude of reports that tell the same story, refuses to acknowledge the damage her policies will cause.
“All the reports, government and otherwise, also show a linkage between a megalitre of water leaving a region and the loss of productivity and jobs. There is no grey area; it is indisputable fact and for Plibersek to dismiss the economic damage and impact on livelihoods is surely a blight on how she treats fellow Australians who do not live in her privileged world.
“There is another indisputable fact common to all social and economic reports, both government and independent. They all show that it is not the person who sells water that suffers, it is the local community. It’s the hard-working small business operator, the education system, health system and even the local sporting clubs, as we have seen here in Wakool.
“It is also the farmers left behind, having the burden of increased costs to run the irrigation system our visionary forefathers built; and it’s the communities with less productivity to drive their economies and employ people involved in flow-on jobs,” Mr Lolicato said.
He said the Water Minister continues to advance her rhetoric around ‘willing sellers’, and asks: So, are they investors, speculators, corporates or retiree farmers who want to fund their move to the coast?
“They are certainly not the younger generation of farmers who want to have a crack at providing our nation with clean, green affordable food, which will cost our families a whole lot more if the Water Minister has her way.
“And what I find most disheartening is that the direction of the Albanese Government is so unnecessary. Our communities, as Robbie Sefton said in the abovementioned report ‘want to be part of a conversation that sets a coherent vision and drives sound policy that deals them in again’.
“We have sought the advice of world-renowned river scientists and developed solutions that can protect farmers, our local communities and, most importantly, the environment. We have solutions that don’t involve devastating buybacks, but these are ignored by a government that is prepared to make us sacrificial lambs for a city-based political agenda,” Mr Lolicato concluded.
This article appeared in The Koondrook and Barham Bridge Newspaper, 16 November 2023.
