MEDIA RELEASE

Not long ago it could be argued that the just-approved, multi-million dollar, riverside development at Mannum in South Australia’s Murraylands would be a welcome initiative; the 570 new residential allotments and 150-berth houseboat marina providing a much-needed economic boost for that regional community

However, that was in the good old bad old days. Now even the most unobservant Australian can see all too clearly the widespread effects of our overexploitation of the Murray-Darling river system.

 MEDIA RELEASE

Yesterday’s statement by National Water Commission CEO, Ken Matthews, that water desalination has a major role to play in Australia’s water future, raises more questions about the priorities of our peak water body. In issuing his media release, Mr Matthews appears to be endorsing a process which has yet to be proven environmentally-benign under Australian conditions, whilst his Commission fails to address two of the most pressing threats to Australia’s water security, namely the devious and constitutionally dodgy hyper-allocation and de-facto privatisation of Murray-Darling water.

(If, having read this article, you wish to contact Craig Wallace,  the Queensland Minister responsible for actioning the valuation of water licences, his fax number is (07) 4773-5013)

MEDIA RELEASE

At the conclusion of the programme, any independent observer of the Four Corners report, aired by our national broadcaster last night, would have risen somewhat unsteadily from the couch, staggered by the degree of ignorance and/or greed displayed by many of those at the heart of the Murray-Darling crisis: politicians and water-users alike.

The future for the Darling itself can only be grim as long as the apparently myopic Queensland Minister for Natural Resources and Water continues with the Queensland Government’s hasty application of absurd dollar-values to water licences virtually donated to their agribusiness cronies, including previous parliamentary colleagues, not so very long ago; valuations curiously based, not on projected volumes of available water, but on the size of the dams constructed, and still being built, by these agribusinesses and other water-speculators, anywhere where the natural flow of surface-water can be impeded.

(Image courtesy ABC TV)

The recent Federal Government acquisition of Toorale Station and its vast water allocation was always likely to test the environmental and social commitment of downstream irrigators. Sadly it appears that a significant number in Queensland have failed the assessment, and some are planning to activate ?sleeper? licences, enabling them to extract much or all of the newly-available water from the Warrego River.