HAVE YOUR SAY ON THE MURRAY DARLING PLAN
Now is your chance to stand up for the rights of farmers and rural communities, and to keep agriculture and food production in Australia. The federal minister for Regional Affairs, Simon Crean has announced a public inquiry into the impact of the recently released Murray Darling Plan. The Government will accept written or emailed submissions up to December 20th 2010. Your submission can be brief if you wish and should focus on the issues, impacts, and present possible solutions, rather than politics or rhetoric. The following link provides some guidance on making submissions http://www.aph.gov.au/house/committee/ra/murraydarling/index.htm
Send your submission to:
ra.reps@aph.gov.au , Attention Committee Secretary, House of Representatives Standing Committee on Regional Australia
or
Committee Secretary, House of Representatives Standing Committee on Regional Australia, PO Box 6021, Parliament House, Canberra ACT 2600.
The Government web-site gives more guidance: The author must sign a written submission either on his or her own behalf or on behalf of the organisation making the submission. Those signing on behalf of an organisation should indicate the level at which the submission has been authorised (eg President, Chief Executive, Secretary). A return address for correspondence and a contact telephone number should be provided with the submission.
SOME OF THE ISSUES YOU MAY WANT TO CONSIDER IN YOUR SUBMISSION:
• The basin produces around $15b per annum in agricultural output from irrigated and non-irrigated farming in communities stretching across four states.
• Any significant reduction in water supply to irrigators and farmers would have significant social, economic and health impacts on the Basin’s farmers, families, communities, towns and businesses, and would threaten their viability.
• The Government must properly compensate farmers, individuals, families, businesses and their staff, for loss of earnings, loss of jobs, and loss of business and property values – including agricultural, residential and commercial property.
• The Government needs to pay relocation, re-establishment and re-housing costs for farmers, individuals, families and businesses forced to move elsewhere to find work, or to re-establish businesses and farms.
• Reduction of irrigation water will reduce farm productivity/output, and so will reduce Australia’s food security and will increase food prices, especially of fresh fruit and vegetables.
• As a result, Australia will have to import more food, and will export less, adversely affecting our balance of trade.
• Future water allocations should be assessed on current rain-fall and water-flow conditions, rather than on the serious drought conditions, which were one of the most severe in recorded history.
• Infrastructure upgrades increase will increase the real amount of water available and if water supply is reduced to irrigators, such upgrades should be built/invested in, by Government, to bring water supplies back to pre cut-back conditions.
• Increasing water flows to the Lower Lakes and Murray mouth to maintain a man-made freshwater lakes system is a questionable use of a limited water resource
• “5 million people living outside the Basin in MelbourneBallarat and Adelaide are draining water away from the MD basin environment and from its food production capacity. These cities should consider the other water supply options available to them, such as desalination, and so ensure that the basin remains able to supply much of Australia’s food needs and for Basin environmental and socio-economic reasons.
•The city of Canberra obtains its entire water supply from the Murray Darling basin. If farmers and regional cities/towns have their water supply cut, Canberra should lead by example and have its water supply cut by the same amount.”
PLEASE HELP!
AUSTRALIA NEEDS YOU
SM.
I doubt most city people know where their water comes from.
SAD AND REGRETTABLY TRUE!….. BUT! WE SHOULD STILL TRY TO HELP OUR BUSH COUSINS BECAUSE WE ARE REALLY HELPING OURSELVES.
I’ve got a plan to fix this.
Farmers need to start becoming Wholesale “FUEL” distributors, and open community food markets to sell their own stock locally, and rely less on the “coles/woolworths” carbon pricing supporters/lobbyists.
The fuel sales is imperative to help people maintain low cost communal mobility and labour, and the community markets will bring in tourists and local citizens alike to their new businesses while creating jobs
Moving off your land to find a new job that pays less makes no sense when if food production falls, the likelihood of their being any jobs worth working will be limited to government assistance programs, such as “pathways”, which is just another way of telling people if they do not do what the government says, they will starve and be forced into the criminal world to survive……labour camps, in other words, like Hitler used to use!
I’m sure that the government is already monitoring this website. I am sure, they have noted that I would in fact ask the assistance of Lord Monckton regarding this issue. Quite possibly, that threat was enough to make simon crean and the gillard government try to run the gauntlet and throw this carbon price into active mode.
The AGW promoting scientists all dread the influence of Lord Monckton, because he worked with the worlds most successful woman….Margaret Thatcher, the Iron lady!
That being by the by, the MDBA plan must be stopped. It is part of the governments carbon pricing management regime……..and the government has no plans on sharing the profits with the people of the land!
sigh adgenda 21………..
here comes the Gestapo………….taxpayer funded, of course! Stand up and STOP this CRAP, before ALL our farm lands are owned by Soros and his foreign investment group buddies!
Govt moves to quell farmer LNG revolt
Kym Agius
November 23, 2010 – 5:49PM
AAP
The Queensland government hopes a new response unit will help quell an uprising by farmers and other landholders worried about the effects of the state’s LNG boom.
Premier Anna Bligh on Tuesday said a Liquefied Natural Gas Enforcement Unit would be set up in the Surat and Bowen Basins by early next year.
She said the 36-member unit would ensure mining companies did the right thing in their dealings with landholders, and abide by the new land access laws that came into effect last month.
Advertisement: Story continues below The unit will comprise environmental, petroleum and gas experts, safety specialists and land access staff.
“These staff will be based out on the ground … on the industry frontline to respond quickly to issues as they arise,” Ms Bligh told parliament.
A further $3.5 million over two years will be given to AgForce to help landholders negotiate with the industry, including conduct and compensation agreements.
“By working with all stakeholders at this embryonic stage, the government can ensure managed and sustainable advancement of the LNG industry,” Ms Bligh said.
The government is facing growing opposition in regional areas to its plans to dramatically expand the state’s coal seam gas/LNG industry.
Earlier this week, hundreds of farmers in the state’s southeast vowed to lock their gates to keep coal and gas explorers off their land.
The Greens and AgForce are among those calling for a moratorium on new LNG projects until more work is done to determine the environmental consequences, including any impact on ground water.
Queensland Party MP Aidan McLindon on Tuesday tabled a motion for a moratorium but was thrown out of the chamber for rowdy behaviour.
“These farmers are crying out for a bit of opposition to what’s going on, and right now it’s falling on deaf ears,” he later told AAP.
“We’re not saying stamp the industry out all together, I’m just saying put a handbrake on it, get a bit of common sense. Let’s get proper consultation.”
AgForce chief executive Robert Walker said the organisation wasn’t backing down on its demands for a moratorium, despite the funding boost.
He said underground water supplies farmers rely on were at risk from coal seam gas operations.
“The government must go much further to ensure the CSG industry becomes responsible for their impact on water and the vital industry of agriculture,” he said in a statement.
On Tuesday, Ms Bligh gave an update on how the CSG/LNG industry had developed over the past year.
“One year ago there was still doubt about whether this industry would get up and off the ground. Today, exploration has indicated hundreds of years of potential gas supply,” she told parliament.
Seven LNG projects have been announced for the state, six are based in the Gladstone area and one near Bowen.
But only one has all the necessary approvals and financial backing.
The projects are expected to create 18,000 jobs and increase gross state product by more than $3 billion, or one per cent.
They are also expected to generate private sector investment of more than $40 billion and provide royalty returns in excess of $850 million a year.