Debbie Buller and Helen Dalton believe Farrer electorate residents should ask some key questions before voting in the upcoming federal election. They believe the Murray Darling Basin Plan should be top of the agenda for politicians, saying it has had a number of negative impacts on Griffith and the surrounding districts.
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Our electorate could make a strong statement as was we go to the polls on July 2.
Our electoral boundary has been subjected to quite significant changes.
We are now the electorate of Farrer which encompasses most of the purpose built irrigation areas on the Murrumbidgee, Murray and Lower Darling regions.
Water policy is most definitely high on the agenda.
Michael McCormack will no longer be our Member.
At present a Liberal, Susan Ley is the member for Farrer.
So what water policies are specifically federal policies, which are specifically state and which are a scrambled mess?
The Water Act 2007 and the resultant Murray Darling Basin Plan are the key federal policies that have directly impacted our electorate and we should remember that the Coalition, particularly Malcolm Turnbull, are responsible for the Water Act 2007.
The Water Act 2007 created the Commonwealth Environment Water Holder (CEWH), the Murray Darling Basin Authority (MDBA) and has also granted significant extra regulatory and advisory powers to other entities like the Bureau of Meteorology (BoM) and the ACCC.
All of these entities and pieces of legislation are in addition to State water management.
Unfortunately, instead of streamlining and rationalising water management, the result has instead been the addition of further layers of bureaucracy and compliance.
Agriculture and environment have been further disconnected at a regulatory level. It’s rapidly turning into a scrambled mess.
The Basin Plan hasn’t created the promised balance or streamlining that we all reasonably expected.
The MDBA has not genuinely engaged and consulted about the impacts of the plan in our electorate.
The MDBA have based much of the plan on ‘over the bank’ or ‘end of system’ flows and have a distinct ‘flush it’ mentality.
They have not tackled the real environmental issues developing around the Coorong, the Lower Lakes and the Lower Murray.
Is it perhaps time to make a stand and vote a different way?
We could ask ourselves which candidates truly understand and respect the key issues in our electorate.
Current water management has become messy and counterproductive.
To receive the attention our electorate deserves and to receive our share of support services we might need to consider making our electorate a marginal seat or a swinging seat.
That might send a clear message to our politicians that current water management principles at all levels of government are not delivering good outcomes.