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Murray Darling Basin Plan
We must meet our climate challenges head on, together: MDBA
Delegates at the River reflections annual water conference heard about the challenges we all face due to climate change and how we must work together to make the Murray–Darling Basin ready for a more variable, drier and hotter future. In his address, The future of the Murray–Darling Basin, Murray–Darling Basin Authority Chair Sir Angus Houston said we must adjust our approach based on what we have learnt and continue in partnership with experts, communities and First Nations People.
Sand slug strikes again
What has caused this estimated 20 million cubic metres of sand in the riverbed between Yarrawonga and Picnic Point to be such a problem now? .... Why did gold mining centuries ago only raise a problem now? How did the sand from the upper reaches get through the settling pond of Lake Mulwala constructed in 1939? And even more alarming, where have the beaches gone around Cobram and surrounds in the last 12 years?
‘Day of reckoning’ is fast approaching: Speak Up
“It is impossible for this to be achieved by 2024. So, what happens then? Will we have huge volumes of water sitting in dams supposedly for ‘environmental use’ that cannot be released because it won’t fit down the system, but not enough water allocated to growing the food and fibre our nation needs? Under this scenario, regional communities will continue to suffer, and every Australian will be hit by increased cost of living" : Speak Up Chair, Shelley Scoullar.
Labor pains
Countless reports, ‘engagement’, reviews and the rapid erosion of the river have highlighted all these failings, yet a potential prime minister appears oblivious to the geographical diversity of issues, constraints and environments across the basin. With city centric politics appearing more interested in getting elected, what hope does the health of our basin have?
Build policy on solutions, not winning votes: Speak Up
The community-based Speak Up Campaign has joined the growing list of organisations expressing concern at last week’s Labor Party announcement around implementation of the Murray-Darling Basin Plan. In particular is the issue of water buybacks, which Labor’s Shadow Water Minister Terri Butler conceded, “If we have to” was “an option that will have to be pursued.”
Labor affirms its decision to remove another 450 gigalitres of water from irrigation use: The Riverina State
Anthony Albanese and the Labor Party have affirmed their decision to remove another 450 gigalitres of water, in addition to the 2750 gigalitres already removed via the Basin Plan, from productive use in NSW and Victoria. Most, if not all, of this water will be sourced from The Riverina and northern Victoria.
Jobs to go under Albanese’s water plan: VFF
The Victorian Farmers Federation (VFF) has warned that jobs across regional Victoria, New South Wales and South Australia will be lost if Anthony Albanese’s policy for water recovery is implemented under the Murray Darling Basin Plan. VFF President Emma Germano said Federal Labor’s five-point policy showed a total misunderstanding of the Basin Plan and a total disregard for jobs in regional communities.
Labor’s plan to future-proof Australia’s water resources: Albanese
An Albanese Labor Government will protect Australia’s precious water resources with a five-point plan for the Murray Darling Basin that strikes the right balance between the needs of local communities, farmers and the environment ... Labor will deliver on the final 450 gigalitres (GL) of water for the environment that Scott Morrison and Barnaby Joyce have failed to deliver.
I’m still lost
For a moment, can we establish that if I was to save the environment it would require a net benefit? This means that I save more environment than I destroy, the environmental assets and ecosystem function are greater than the baseline of where we began. In watching Australia’s water policy develop, be implemented and progress, I often find myself lost or searching for some understanding of how we got here. “We wonder why a frog near a coal mine is environmental matter of national significance, yet a 47,000 hectare wetland is not. 220,000 bird movements a year is a national treasure and now the testimony in this place is the state and federal governments are going to murder Menindee,” was a question put forward by Senator Malcolm Roberts at a recent Federal Estimates hearing on water.
Better use of water for the environment – not more buybacks: Pitt, Ley, Davey
“Increasing the capacity of the existing channel escapes will mean environmental water can fill wetlands and creeks that would otherwise only get wet during large over bank flows ... We put an end to buybacks because of the damage they have done to regions like this – stretching beyond the individual farmgate and impacting on the efficiency or whole irrigation networks”: Keith Pitt, Minister for Resources and Water.
