Water speculators “eagerly anticipating” Basin Plan
Monday, 15 November 2010
MEDIA RELEASE
As irrigators and environmentalists continue to question the impacts of the proposed Basin Plan, one sector stands to profit handsomely from the inevitable reduction in water diversions, according to water rights and environmental advocacy group, Fair Water Use (Australia).
The group’s coordinator, Ian Douglas, commented today, “Managers of water investment funds are eagerly anticipating the rich pickings that stand to be made from snapping-up high security water entitlements prior to implementation of the Basin Plan - and some have already begun to do so.”
The future of the Murray-Darling compromised by open-market imperatives
Monday, 27 September 2010
MEDIA RELEASE
Today’s announcement, that the Federal Government has again rejected an offer to purchase water entitlements from irrigators in the Wimmera irrigation district, this time at a price almost one third less than previously offered, is an inevitable consequence of the inherently volatile water market which successive Australian governments have sought to establish, according to public water rights and environmental advocacy group, Fair Water Use.
In response to comments from Tony Burke, Federal Minister with responsibility for water, the coordinator of Fair Water Use, Ian Douglas, said that the decision came as no surprise, given the current open-market approach to water resource management in this country; a policy which is being increasingly rejected by overseas legislatures.
Recent legislation to privatise water services in Italy has met with staunch public resistance and a well-organised national campaign, resulting in the tabling of a petition of around 1.5 million signatures from citizens opposed to this legislation - three times as many as are required to call a referendum on the issue.
Paolo Carsetti of the Forum Italiano dei Movimenti per l’Acqua has pointed out that even the City of Paris has removed control of water supply from the private sector, “when Paris had been the heart of the empire of water multinationals such as Suez and Veolia.".
Murray-Darling water speculation possibly unconstitutional
Thursday, 26 August 2010
MEDIA RELEASE
The formation of a company established solely to speculate on Australian water, and specifically that in the Murray-Darling Basin, will heighten public concerns about the current water reform process, according to public water rights and environmental advocacy group, Fair Water Use.
Fair Water Use reveals today that Causeway Water Limited is currently on a global fundraising drive to procure an initial $100 million from investors in Europe, North America and the Asia-Pacific and thereafter intends to focus on the purchase of Murray-Darling water.
Wentworth Group proposal threatens Australia's water security and Basin food production
Wednesday, 02 June 2010
MEDIA RELEASE
Although the recommendations made
in the paper released yesterday by the Wentworth Group of
Concerned Scientists achieve the necessary reduction in diversions
from the Murray-Darling Basin, national environmental and public water-rights advocacy group, Fair Water Use Australia, is concerned that
its authors place inappropriate emphasis on minimising the impact
on profitable irrigating enterprises, as opposed to those which
provide the greatest economic and social benefit to the nation -
and Basin communities in particular.
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