False promises of prosperity
I READ with interest that a business case has been completed for the Hughenden Irrigation Project, in the Flinders region of north-west Queensland.
It suggests the proposed scheme will generate $776.6 million in benefits and over 1900 agricultural jobs and will “transform Hughenden and the Flinders Shire communities into a diverse, future-proofed and resilient agricultural and economic powerhouse”.
I come with a warning to all those who think this may be an agricultural and economic panacea for that region.
More than seven decades past, there were likewise grand plans for agricultural and economic prosperity across south-western NSW with the construction of the Snowy Hydro project, Hume Dam and a magnificent irrigation scheme that would drought-proof and revitalise this land for national benefit.
Then, in more recent times, we had the Millennium Drought, which presented our South Australian neighbours with a unique opportunity to seek increased volumes of this stored water, primarily for their domestic and recreational use. Of course, suggesting the water would be for such uses would not pass the “pub test”, so instead they promoted the need for “environmental flows”.
The politicians saw a potential vote-winner, the scientific community saw a unique opportunity to get billions in funding, and before you could say “let’s hang our irrigators out to dry” the media was conned and the scene was set.
Now, instead of using water to grow the food and fibre that we all need, we provide water in abundance to keep South Australia’s lower lakes at a prime level for recreation activities, we make it available for SA’s expanding canal-frontage housing, we keep the lawns across Adelaide and other parts of SA in lovely green condition and we pour what’s left out to sea.
The communities which have relied on agricultural prosperity since the irrigation scheme was established become the collateral damage, but who cares? Not the politicians, because they have a vote winner. Not the scientists, because they have their slice of $13 billion. Not the Croweaters, because they have water in abundance. And certainly not the media, because they have yet another left wing agenda to promote.
I am pleased to see the optimism that surrounds the proposed Hughenden Irrigation Project. However, be warned, despite all the facts, all the evidence and all the prosperity, you, like us, will ultimately be destroyed if there are third parties with different personal agendas.
Alan Thwaites
Finley, NSW
Regions need addiction help
NEW and upgraded hospitals and more beds to treat vulnerable Victorians desperate to shake the insidious claws of drug and alcohol addiction will change lives and save lives.
Regional Victorians were already facing poorer health outcomes before the pandemic put monumental pressure on our health workforce.
The past two years of uncertainty and surgery bans has left health workers exhausted and forced sick people to wait in pain as they’re stuck in a line of more than 80,000 Victorians on hospital waitlists.
Labor has been in power for 20 of the past 24 years. They are the ones that got us into this mess.
They won’t be the ones to get us out of it.
Only a change in government in November will shift the focus to a policy agenda that will deliver a healthcare system that’s fair, properly resourced and accessible for us all.
The Nationals in government have promised reforms to unlock more health care workers to renew the depleted workforce, including with the nation’s largest recruitment drive.
This drive will see more scholarships on offer to enable more people to study, extra training places opened for psychologists and psychiatrists and relocation incentives to join the workforce.
The Nationals’ plan to rebuild healthcare in Victoria will also look long-term, with funding allocated for new and upgraded hospitals at Mildura, Warragul, Wodonga and St Arnaud, with more announcements to come.
It will also see a new Infectious Diseases Response Centre for Melbourne.
And we’ll make sure Victorians can access support to get out of addiction and get their lives back on track with new residential rehabilitation centres, including at the Latrobe Valley, Shepparton, Mildura and Warrnambool.
We deserve a healthcare system in regional Victoria that keeps up with growing demand and is properly resourced to take care of the health of our families and communities.
It’s time we got our fair share. We deserve a better deal. Only The Nationals in government in November will get it done.
Peter Walsh
Member for Murray Plains
Leader of The Nationals
