RocketTheme Joomla Templates
     
Home arrow Media Releases arrow Politics
Politics
Government must deliver on promised audit of private water storages PDF Print E-mail
Friday, 08 January 2010

MEDIA RELEASE

7th January 2010

In response to the announcement by the NSW Department of Water & Energy that it does not believe that recent flooding rains in the Darling Basin will result in increased flows into the lower Murray, environmental and public water rights advocacy group Fair Water Use (Australia) has called for the Commonwealth to keep its 2008 promise to provide “comprehensive, detailed and externally reviewed audit” of private water storages in the Basin: Read ABC article.

National coordinator of FWU, Ian Douglas stated today, “Given current management arrangements with respect to the Menindee Lakes, there is no incentive for the NSW government to reduce the capacity of private dams and to remove the massive, frequently illegal, surface water impoundments constructed upstream from the lakes by agribusinesses seeking to persist with broad-acre irrigation of high water demand crops in what is predominantly a semi-arid environment.”

“It is widely acknowledged that the failure to make such information publicly available is a result of objections raised by some Basin States. In the absence of this vital data, Australians can have no faith that the Basin Plan being prepared by the Murray-Darling Basin Authority is based on a thorough understanding of all factors contributing to its current lamentable condition”, Dr Douglas continued.

He concluded, “The ability of individual Basin States to act in a manner contrary to the overall benefit of the river system is the core reason why Australians are increasingly demanding that the Commonwealth assume total control of the river system via a new, entirely independent and appropriately empowered body, for the sake of the unique environment of the Basin, its long-term productivity and its communities”.

 
Governments and Oppositions asked to respond to MDB proposals PDF Print E-mail
Thursday, 19 November 2009

MEDIA RELEASE

Subsequent to yesterday’s release of terms of reference for the National State of Emergency Commission and National Public Commission of Inquiry into the Murray-Darling crisis proposed by Fair Water Use (Australia), copies of these documents have now been provided to the Prime Minister, Basin State Premiers, Federal and State Ministers with responsibility for water and their opposition counterparts.

Fair Water Use has requested that each of these senior party members indicate their stance on these proposals - and awaits their responses.

National coordinator of Fair Water Use, Dr Ian Douglas, said earlier today, “Members of current administrations, and those that aspire to succeed them, can no longer afford to ignore the increasingly-loud calls, coming from all parts of Australia, for urgent and meaningful action on the Murray-Darling crisis – or do so at their electoral peril”.

 
PM risks accusations of "policy drought" in Copenhagen PDF Print E-mail
Tuesday, 17 November 2009

MEDIA RELEASE

National environmental and water-rights advocacy group Fair Water Use (Australia) has responded to the statement issued by the Federal Minister for Climate Change and Water, following release of the latest Drought Update by the Murray-Darling Basin Authority:

“The Federal Water Minister is now using the crisis in the Murray-Darling to push the weak CPRS that the Prime Minister wishes to parade in Copenhagen.

Read more...
 
Irrigators' court action: pitch your tent Minister PDF Print E-mail
Tuesday, 10 November 2009

MEDIA RELEASE

Confirmation that irrigation group, Murray Valley United, is proceeding with its Federal Court claim, seeking damages arising from the misguided water reform policies of the Federal Government, came on the same day as the Federal Water Minister stated that the Commonwealth could get the action it needed on the Murray-Darling “without setting up camp in the courts”.

Read more...
 
NWC report essentially flawed PDF Print E-mail
Friday, 09 October 2009
 
MEDIA RELEASE 

National water rights advocacy group, Fair Water Use, is concerned by the philosophy underpinning Australian water reform 2009; a report released today by the National Water Commission.

Read more...
 
<< Start < Prev 1 2 Next > End >>

Results 1 - 9 of 18

Advocating environmentally-responsible use of Murray-Darling water

Fair Water Use (Australia) is a lobby group formed by everyday Australians who share the vision of a revived Murray-Darling basin and the sustainable environmental, community and economic benefits that would flow from its recovery.