DISASTROUS MDB LEAKS SPELL BAD NEWS FOR FARMERS

07-October-2010

Thursday, 7 October 2010
A devastating leak from the Government shows how damaging the secret Murray Darling Basin plan will be for local farmers in the North East. The leak suggests that irrigators will have water entitlements cut by between 27% and 37%. This leak is ahead of tomorrow’s release of the Guidelines to the Draft Murray Darling Basin Plan.
The guidelines to the plan were due to be released in early August, but were delayed because the Government feared bad publicity during an election campaign.
“For this bad news to be delivered through a leak shows the Government refuses to take responsibility for water policy,” Mrs Mirabella said today.
“The water that farmers stand to lose is equivalent to the full capacity of Dartmouth Dam. Worse still, Julia Gillard, during the campaign committed to adopting the plan sight unseen. Labor’s attempt at so called consultation with farmers is a joke and an insult, because they have already locked themselves into proceeding with the recommendations,” Mrs Mirabella continued.
“The decision to release the plan at 4:00pm on a Friday afternoon proves that Labor is desperately trying to avoid the news cycle and sweep the bad news under the rug.”
“Labor inherited an action plan from the Coalition which included a detailed ten point program for national management of Australia’s water needs.”
Mrs Mirabella agreed that “we all want some certainty in returning the system to health and protecting the environment while still allowing the nation’s food producers do what they do best, grow good healthy, Australian food.”