THE latest Albanese government advertising campaign supports the view that tighter regulations are required over government advertising.
Using taxpayer dollars on prime time television screens, the government is making emotive and inaccurate claims about the Murray-Darling Basin Plan.
This expensive campaign is no doubt designed to try and overcome all the negativity around this failing plan, and in particular the genuine concerns of rural communities in relation to water buybacks.
There are pretty pictures of birds which are supposed to be threatened, and parched lands showing the effect of drought, effectively used to stir the emotions. But surely the use of misleading information in this advertisement is a step too far.
For starters, the greatest threat to our food supply is the basin plan itself. The plan is removing massive quantities of water from food production, and the only possible result is higher prices at the supermarket and a heavier reliance by Australia on food imports, in contrast to our historic legacy of being a significant exporter. This, of course, will also impact Australia’s balance of trade.
Rivers will not run dry, as the advertisement claims. Under the basin plan we are recovering unnecessary volumes of water and storing it in upstream dams, with the resultant increased flood risk to public and private infrastructure when unexpected rain events occur (as we have seen in recent years).
Nor will the current focus of the basin plan protect us from fish kills, because these are predominantly in the Darling River system and the stored water is in the upper Murray. You cannot use stored Murray water to fix problems in the Darling.
So, rather than trying to hoodwink Australians with falsehoods, the Albanese government would be better served by trying to work with communities and improve this failing basin plan. On the present path, the plan will leave a sad legacy for future generations as it adversely impacts food security while at the same time not maximising environmental outcomes.
Sue Braybon
Tocumwal
