MEMBER for Murray Helen Dalton has thrown her support behind an anti-water buyback petition in NSW, saying the scheme represented a “whole new level of stupidity”.
Mrs Dalton said a constituent had lodged an ePetition with NSW Parliament demanding the NSW Government “start listening to all communities that will be affected by water buybacks and the transfer of water to the Commonwealth”.
“Buybacks will ruin rural, remote and regional communities, the overall economy and jeopardise our food security and sovereignty,” Mrs Dalton said. “This issue will impact all Australians from the farm gate to the city.”
The petition requires 20,000 signatures to initiate a debate in parliament that demands the government stop the transfer of water from southern basin irrigation communities to the Commonwealth for the environment.
It calls for the assessment of the potential economic losses these communities may face if water resources are diverted and also assess the environmental implications of water transfers on local ecosystems, and biodiversity.
“We are already seeing the degradation of our endangered platypus and kingfisher populations with the erosion of riverbanks due to the rivers being run to hard and fast,” Mrs Dalton said.
“We also know that due to constraints in the system, the volume of water that federal Water Minister Tanya Plibersek wants to recover from our farmers and flush out to sea in South Australia is impossible to deliver.
“The government must immediately engage in transparent consultation with affected communities to address concerns regarding water management.
“Safeguarding water resources is crucial for the survival of our state, our food security and sovereignty and our economy, but most importantly, it is the survival of rural, remote and regional communities who maintain Australia’s food bowl.”
It came as Mrs Dalton told NSW Parliament on Wednesday the federal buyback scheme represented a “whole new level of stupidity”.
“The plan is so bad that the Federal Government is now worried there will be a voter backlash,” she said.
“People think the Federal Government has lost the plot. The smart thing would be for the Federal Government to drop its stupid buyback plan, but the feds are so stupid that they are not smart enough to do the smart thing.”
Mrs Dalton took umbrage to a $12 million television and radio advertising campaign about protecting the basin.
“If the feds really cared for the Murray-Darling Basin, that $12 million could be used to achieve a lot more than river lies,” she said. “For example, that money could be used to buy much-needed fish ladders.
“That being said, I reckon (Ms) Plibersek, would not even know what a fish ladder was. She probably thinks a fish ladder is what you get when you get a ladder in a pair of fish-net stockings – that is how urban she is.
“But in the real rural world, we know $12 million of fish ladders would significantly improve the health of the rivers.”
Mrs Dalton said, however, the NSW Government wasn’t “dumb”.
“Premier Chris Minns is actually one of the smartest men I know, and I know that he will understand that this propaganda campaign is a shocking abuse of taxpayers’ money,” she said.
“I call on our Premier to denounce this disgraceful waste of taxpayers’ money by the Federal Government.
“He could even phone Tanya and tell her he thinks that she should stop these river lies. If he does not have her mobile number, I am sure I can get it for him. But, let’s face it, they both are Labor, and I am sure they know how to call each other.”
Ms Plibersek previously said the voluntary buyback tender result showed an “appetite from local communities to participate in voluntary water purchase, especially in the southern Murray-Darling Basin, where the bulk of remaining water recovery is needed”.
“In fact, in some areas more than double the offers were received than what was required,” she said.
“Through these willing sellers, we will return water that is desperately needed to restore our rivers and support the plants, animals and communities that rely on it.”
