SENATOR John Madigan abstained from voting on the Murray-Darling Basin Plan because “it didn’t make any bloody sense to me”.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
That’s what he told the crowd gathered at the Yoogali Club for the Murray-Darling Basin Scam event.
Mr Madigan said he was amazed to hear recently the Plan was still being finalised.
He said he asked what politicians had voted on 18 months ago if the Plan was still being finalised.
Mr Madigan said he had received a number of calls from people urging him not to attend the forum and “whip up trouble”.
But he said the Plan would affect all Australians.
“You must stand together,” he said.
“United you stand, divided you fall.”
Lower Lakes resident Ken Jury, producer of the documentary Muddied Waters, delivered an alarming prediction to the crowd.
He said the total storage levels were below 50 per cent.
“At the rate we’re using water right now if we keep up that average it tells us the whole of storage in the Murray-Darling Basin will be empty,” Mr Jury said.
He said that could happen as early as September.
“I hope I’m wrong,” Mr Jury said.
Water consultant and former Nationals Party executive Ron Pike said treeless plains in the district came to life with irrigation many years ago.
He said the uninhabitable became extremely productive.
“When we do this we create jobs, we create tax paying jobs as opposed to taxpayer funded jobs, isn’t that what we should be doing?”
He said it was time to “ditch the Plan”.
“The Murray-Darling Basin Plan and the Act that spawns it is contrary to the Constitution and it should be thrown out tomorrow,” Mr Pike said.
“We’re here tonight because what’s happening is not in the national interest,” Mr Pike said.
“What’s happening is destroying regional communities. What is happening is destroying the environment. The people who are enacting this wouldn’t know what the environment was if it bit them on the bum.”
Mr Pike said he was not calling for changes to the Plan, he was calling for it to be abandoned.
“We’re going to kill it, we’re going it drown it, finito.’
He said politicians “got this wrong” and it was only politicians who could put it right.
The crowd was shown a clip of Tony Abbott addressing residents concerned about the Plan in 2011.
On that night Mr Abbott said the Coalition would not support a bad Plan.
“We won’t have food security if we don’t also have water security,” Mr Abbott said.
“We should try to put more water into the river for environmental purposes but we can’t put more water into the river for environmental purposes in ways that will destroy your livelihoods and the communities.
“We want a plan that secures your future, we want a plan which gives you certainty.”
Griffith Business Chamber president Paul Pierotti said there needed to be a state inquiry into the Plan.
“If we do nothing we know the consequences will be devastating,” Mr Pierotti said.