COLEAMBALLY Irrigation boss John Culleton has urged locals to “maintain the rage” during the all-important draft Murray-Darling Basin Plan consultation period.
“I have been asked by many what, if anything, will change following the community engagement session in Griffith on December 15 last year,” Mr Culleton said.
“I guess the answer lies in whether the MDBA and the water minister are really listening or whether they are intent on pushing the draft plan through irrespective of what basin communities are saying to them.”
Mr Culleton said it was overwhelmingly clear that the people of the Murrumbidgee, and not just the farming community, were unconvinced that the draft plan would provide them with sustainable futures.
He said there was a disconnect between the promises being made by the Commonwealth government and what was contained in, or missing from, the draft plan.
“It’s clear that many in the Murrumbidgee see the draft plan as largely being a re-packaged version of the MDBA’s disastrous guide,” he said. “I don’t share that view, but the one fact that is largely inescapable is that the water recovery target is pretty much unchanged.
“In the absence of detail about how that target was determined, how the plan is to be implemented and how the social economic impacts identified by a raft of consultants engaged by the MDBA are going to be ameliorated to the extent that we can continue to enjoy, as Minister Burke has promised, strong and vibrant futures, people within the Murrumbidgee are likely to continue to either reject the draft plan or to be highly skeptical of it.”
When asked what locals could do next to continue to try to ensure a balanced plan would be arrived at, Mr Culleton emphasized that the community consultation session was not the end of the process.
“People need to continue to express their view on the draft plan and can do so by writing to state and federal politicians and by taking the opportunity to make a formal submission in response to the draft Plan,” he said, while noting that any such submission needs to be received by the MDBA by April 16.
“The letters and submissions don’t have to be lengthy or expertly written,” he said.
“What’s more important is that they say something about the writer, and why they chose to live in this community, and express any concerns they might have about the draft Plan in their own words.
“If the intent is truly to strike a proper balance between the needs of the environment and social and economic needs across the Basin, rather than just conjuring-up an arrangement that will get across a political line beyond the Basin, and the feedback from Basin communities is overwhelming about the fear of that balance not having been struck, that message is not one that can go ignored”.
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