New party’s water policy
I will be arriving in Griffith on Friday with Australian Liberty Alliance Senate candidate Kirralie Smith and other office bearers. Over the weekend we are running meetings in Griffith, Leeton, Deniliquin and Wagga. This is a summary of our water policy.
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The Murray-Darling Basin Plan will be abolished and replaced with water conservation policies that will:
- Correct forever the salinity and environmental problems in the Coorong and Lower Lakes.
- By building a lock and weir at Wellington and return the Lower Lakes to an estuarine environment while maintaining lake water levels.
- As a result we can guarantee all water users in South Australia more fresh water at prices comparable to water prices upstream and return more than three million megalitres of water annually for productive use upstream.
- Build extra storages on the Darling catchment and river, guaranteeing all of Darling River flow in all seasons and maintenance of Menindee Lakes as the source of water for Broken Hill and surrounds and renew the pipeline from the Lakes to Broken Hill.
- We will instigate the building of the Lake Coolah-Stony Point Storage which will provide around 300,000 megalitres of extra water every year for Murrumbidgee Irrigation Area and Coleambally Irrigation Area irrigators.
- An ongoing program of dam building and hydro power production that will provide all of our power and water needs for the next century in all states at world competitive prices.
- Using this water and power to expand our food and fibre production along with processing, transport and other ancillary industries.
- A north- south railway and road corridor to connect these centres of production and passing through an international freight hub north of Griffith.
- This transport corridor will facilitate the efficient production of fertilizer, fuel and ancillary products by combining the raw materials from the north and south and passing through the areas of end use.
Ron Pike
Australian Liberty Alliance
Smoke concerns
What is becoming even more concerning than air pollution in the Riverina rivalling that infamous smog over Beijing is the lack of oversight accompanying the lack of accountability for 'burning off' on farms.
An EPA spokesman stated in The Area News on April 12 that farms did not fall under the Protection of the Environment Operations Act and the responsibility for regulation belonged to councils.
Griffith City Council's director of sustainable development, Neil Southorn, was quoted that local government “has no specific powers to act in regard to agricultural smoke or burn-off, or act on the subsequent air quality issues... It is unclear why the EPA say otherwise.”
While councils might be best located to monitor and act on air pollution issues, there clearly needs to be support to do so. At present the NSW Office of Environment and Heritage only monitors air quality in Wagga and Albury.
Air quality is a perennial issue in the Riverina and one which impacts on the health of every member of the community. More needs to be done to ensure that residents are able to breathe free from pollution.
Jason Richardson
Congratulations
Tegan Snaidero (pictured) graduated with a Bachelor of Commerce (Banking and Financial Services) from the University of Canberra on Tuesday. Ms Snaidero is working at Callahan’s Accounting in Canberra.
