Fair Water Use Australia | striving for a revived Murray-Darling basin by supporting environmentally sustainable water-use

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Open Letter to the Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry

Thursday, 01 May 2008

The following letter was sent to Canberra today:

Dear Mr Burke,

As coordinator of the new national body "Fair Water Use (Australia)", I would be most grateful if, in your Ministerial capacity, you would respond to the rapidly increasing percentage of everyday Australians who believe that the cultivation of unsustainable and inappropriate crops such as rice and cotton should be phased out in favour of agricultural and rural pursuits more in keeping with this the driest continent on earth. I attach some data for your interest.

This may not be a new issue, but it is one that must be resolved, as it will certainly not go away; an ever-increasing percentage of the Australian electorate is seeking decisive leadership from the new Labor Government, and yourself in particular, on this matter.

Although a step in the right direction, the Murray-Darling and its farming communities cannot wait for the many years that it will take to fully implement the national water plan. Moreover the scientific consensus is that under the plan only a slight increase in environmental flows will be achieved.

Our membership would also like to ask whether you have considered re-framing the assistance currently offered the many farmers in the Murray-Darling Basin whose struggle to survive, in the face of drought, climate change and the corporate greed of large irrigators (often financed by overseas capital), will only become more dire with the passage of time.

We realise that financial support is already available to farmers who wish to address the ecological impact of their traditional activities, however, the assistance that Fair Water Use is proposing is to subsidise these farmers to cease commercial agriculture altogether and to commence work to restore their land to as close as possible to its natural state, with the diverse ecological, social and cultural benefits that would accrue. We are sure that this would also turn around the frighteningly high suicide rate in this section of the community, as those involved could see the long term benefits of their action.

These would be very sound political moves, as the Australian public is now ready to accept decisive and visionary measures, as they realise all too well the effect that the status-quo is having on the environment and life in Australia.

We would be very pleased to receive your response.

Kind regards,

Dr Ian Douglas

Coordinator

Fair Water Use (Australia)

The $13 billion band-aid

Wednesday, 30 April 2008

Today's $13 billion allocation by the Federal Government is welcomed but does little to address the major anthropogenic causes of the critical condition of the Murray-Darling, according to Fair Water Use (Australia) coordinator, Dr Ian Douglas.

"The Government must acknowledge that, irrespective the severity of drought conditions, the future health of the Murray-Darling requires that only environmentally sustainable and appropriate agricultural practices are permitted in the catchment."

Based on figures obtained from the Australian Bureau of Statistics, in 2005-6 the cotton and rice sectors extracted around 3,000 billion litres of the total of 7,400 billion litres of water removed from the Murray-Darling system for agricultural irrigation.

Dr Douglas went on to say, "The unacceptably high water demands of cotton and rice are best illustrated by calculation of the volumes required to create a unit of product."

According to Fair Water Use data, nationwide, irrigated agriculture as a whole generates one dollar of product from every 295 litres extracted; whereas cotton growers alone require 1925 litres and the rice sector a staggering 5000 litres to generate the same dollar.

Fair Water Use believes that a rapidly-increasing percentage of the Australian public is of the opinion that the cultivation of water-hungry crops such as cotton and rice on the driest continent on earth is totally unacceptable and should be proscribed, to reduce the long-term impact of such activities on the catchment.

"There is a precedent for such action, as a range of crops cannot be grown in this country without a licence. Strangely, the list includes industrial hemp, which is much better suited to cultivation in Australia, as its water and chemical demands are relatively low", said Dr Douglas.