The great trilogy of policy disasters of the Labor party are:
- the live cattle trade, getting a 0 out of 10 for diplomacy and a 0 out of 10 for economics
- the carbon tax, getting a 0 out of 10 for public relations, and a 0 out of 10 for democracy and 2 out of 10 for cost of living.
- and the one that is actually the closest at home for me, the Murray Darling Basin, which gets 0 out of 10 for economics, a 0 out of 10 for regional development, a 2 out of 10 for consultation and a 2 out of 10 for our future food security.
The latest revelations on the fiasco that is the Labor party's Murray-Darling Basin policy is the release today of the Environment and Behaviour Consultants report on the socioeconomic impacts of the Basin.
The report shows that the towns that will be hit the hardest are small and heavily reliant on food production, and the resulting multiplier effects this production provides.
These are the small towns that Sarah Hanson-Young wants to shut down, when she calls for 7600 GL to be taken away from water use in the Basin. If it was up to Sarah Hanson-Young the only place that Banjo Paterson could have written about would have been Nimbin.
The Green-Labor-Independent alliance seems intent on destroying the fabric that the vast majority of Australians take as their heritage. Yes we live on the coast but our soul is our centre. We are logically and sentimentally very attached to the work of the people who feed us, Clothe us and provide the vast majority of our export income to sustain our nation.
This report on the Murray-Darling Basin should clearly have numerous columns in our nation's newspapers tomorrow. It's just that another Green-Labor-Independent fiasco is shading it out.
Craig Knowles has said that it was all terrible in the past but now things have changed. But what actually has changed? The current Labor government approach risks making the same mistakes again.
The MDBA is not increasing its consultation, rather it’s shutting it down. The Victorian Minister last week revealed that the MDBA is planning to only hold meetings with invited 'industry leaders' after the draft plan is released.
The Government refuses to amend the legislation; in fact they refuse to even consider amending the legislation, which led us to this problem in the first place. This is despite the findings of a recent Senate inquiry into the Water Act.
The government is continuing with the purchase of non-strategic water buybacks. This is despite a recent House of Representatives inquiry, which included Labor members, backing the Coalition's election policy of making water purchases more strategic.
Labor's approach to the Murray-Darling is a peacock policy, looks marvellous, sounds ordinary but its capacity to fly is highly questionable.
source: Senator Barnaby Joyce
Shadow Minister for Regional Development, Local Government and Water
Leader of The Nationals in the Senate
LNP Senator for Queensland
14th July 2011
More Information – Matthew Canavan 0458 709 433
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