MEDIA RELEASE

Whilst Australian Governments persist with their free-market driven water-reform process, the international experience is that such strategies are ineffective and have resulted in the current water crisis in the State of California, which is now implementing emergency measures to address the devastating consequences of massive over-exploitation of its water resources. International experts continue to urge the Australian Government to change tack on water management.

Prestigious publication The Scientific American is now adding its weight to the increasing body of opinion calling for a total rethink of water policy in Australia. The article may be viewed here.

United Nations’ senior advisor on water issues, Maude Barlow, has contacted Fair Water Use in response to the speech to the South Australian Press Club delivered earlier this week by Federal Water Minister, Penny Wong, stating that the Minister “shows an astonishing lack of understanding about the root causes of the crisis in the Murray Darling and the need above all for conservation and watershed restoration. Pushing for a more aggressive market solution to the crisis is exactly the worst path the Minister and her government could have taken. What is needed is for Australia's water to be declared a public trust and protected for all time for all Australians the ecosystem and the future”.

Coordinator of Fair Water Use, Ian Douglas, commented today, “There is irrefutable evidence of the collapse of national and regional water reserves that is a sequel to short-sighted administrations leaving water management in the hands of the open-market.”

He added, “The Commonwealth cannot continue to ignore such warnings and can no longer afford to delay making fundamental changes to its water policy.”

“The federal electorate is now aware that Australia’s water future is in the hands of the Rudd Government. The Prime Minister must respond in a similar fashion to the Governor of California and declare a State of Emergency in the Murray-Darling Basin, to allow him to implement the necessary changes to its governance and administration”,  Dr Douglas concluded.