LOCAL irrigation communities sent a scorching message to the Murray-Darling Basin Authority (MDBA) yesterday at the first of a series of high-level public meetings in Griffith.
More than 250 people attended the Basin Communities Association (BCA) event at the regional theatre, aimed at gauging public reaction to the draft basin plan, released last Monday.
A number of guest speakers addressed the crowd before the audience was called on to judge the basin plan on seven key criteria – rationale, balance, detail, local input, broader solutions, transparency and certainty.
Stakeholders and community members, many who passionately denounced the draft plan, gave the MDBA a “fail” on each category.
The event was far more sedate than the MDBA meeting at the Yoogali Club last year, with audience members opting for considered debate over placards and slogans.
BCA board member and Elders managing director Malcolm Jackman said the draft plan was “riddled with holes”.
“If this was a business plan and I wanted to take it to my board of directors, I’d get bloody fired,” he said to rapturous applause.
“This is a plan with no practical application and the detail in it is non-existent.”
The event was streamed lived on the web and feedback from online viewers was displayed on a giant, on-stage screen.
Coleambally Irrigation CEO John Culleton said the MDBA had failed in its “fundamental obligation” to explain why it planned to redivert 2750GL of productive water to the environment.
“When you try to read the draft, you can’t actually work out how they came to that figure,” Mr Culleton said.
“It’s very hard to know whethere a rationale (for the cuts) exists or not. There’s not even an environmental watering plan.”
The paucity of detail in the plan and the MDBA’s water buyback strategy meant communities were suffering a type of death by a thousand cuts, Griffith Business Chamber president Paul Pierotti said.
“This plan has devastated the community already – jobs lost, house prices plummeting ... the impact is now,” he said.
The BCA was established after last year’s controversial release of the guide to the draft plan, which triggered community outrage in irrigation areas.
Its board represents a range of business and
community interests in irrigation areas – not just farmers.
“People are deeply concerned this ill-conceived basin plan will cost tens of thousands of jobs and not only farming jobs, doctors, corner shops, truckies, everyone,” meeting chairman and BCA consultant Toby Ralph said.
“They feel it’s (the plan) driven by capital city
agendas and that mismanagement by government will wreck lives, businesses and communities.”
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