LAST week I attended a meeting organised by the Federal Government to explain the process around water buybacks. My conclusion: is it any wonder we get fed up with bureaucratic tick-a-box exercises which they claim is community consultation?
This meeting was nothing more than a bureaucratic sham by the Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water.
For starters, some people who registered were not allowed to attend, supposedly due to “COVID protocols to protect our health and safety”. This was yet another poor bureaucratic excuse to ban anyone who might object to water buybacks.
For example, we were told they wanted to hear from community leaders. If that’s the case, why was Lloyd Polkinghorne, a community leader from Barham, barred from entering?
And while the bureaucrats claim they want to “hear from community leaders”, when they were told over and over about the damage to our communities from water buybacks, their focus remained steadfastly on saying they had deadlines to meet with basin plan implementation. In other words, “We don’t care about the damage to your community; we don’t care that there as aspects of the basin plan that obviously need reviewing; we don’t care that there are better options to buybacks which may take a little longer to implement”.
The government’s sole priority, regardless of the damage to our communities, is a poorly modelled timeline of recovery volumes that was developed in haste well over a decade ago and is no longer either appropriate or necessary.
The environment bureaucrats do not even care about the unintended environmental damage being caused by some of the current water management practices, nor are they interested in listening to how this can be rectified.
In frustration, I walked out before I exploded at these uninformed city-based individuals who show such arrogant disregard for our region and the role we play in feeding our nation and the world. Unfortunately, most are on such high incomes and lack appreciation of what is involved in growing food, that they give no thought to the cost-of-living pressures their policies will have on all Australians.
In fact, I lack confidence that the pertinent and important points raised by those in attendance will ever go beyond this information session. While I believe a government representative was taking notes, how will we know whether they are a true record of community concern?
In my view, the meeting was a farce and the Federal Water Minister, who is leading the buyback campaign, should hang her head in shame at the unnecessary pain that is going to be inflicted on our communities, for no reason other than political gain.
Laurie Beer
Mayrung, NSW
