An Open Letter to the Hon. Julia Gillard, Acting Prime Minister
January 12, 2010
Dear Julia Gillard,
We need you to take a stand for Australia’s River. The water coming down the Murray-Darling system must flow through to the Murray Mouth.
We ask that in your Wednesday January 13 meeting with senior members of the Basin Officials Committee you intervene in the national interest to save our major river system.
We know rivers die from the bottom up. The accumulated salt and nutrients of the River Murray, Lakes Alexandrina and Albert must be flushed out to sea or they will creep up the river like an insidious invasive cancer. More weirs and dams will not stop this growth. Rather, the health of the eco-system relies on connectivity, on the mixing and movement of water through the system.
We ask that you move to stop the cancer. The cure, fresh water, is on the way. Cyclone Laurence crossed the coastline in the Kimberley in WA and brought heavy rains across the NT, NSW, Queensland and northern SA. The floodwaters that are now coursing through the system must flow to the Southern Ocean.
When the Murray Mouth closed over for the first time in 1981, it should have been the sign for all the states that the system was over-allocated, but we kept allocating. Now we are extracting more than flows into the system.
We have had decades of reports and plans. We know what is needed to save the ailing Murray-Darling system: freshwater flowing through the Murray Mouth.The excuses why water is not reaching the Murray Mouth are legion. We are told: “There are rules. There are laws. There is no water. We are working on a draft Basin-wide plan that will become operational by 2014-19. We are experiencing an unprecedented drought.” But we are also a country of flooding rains. The water flooding down the system now is our opportunity to reset the system.
The floodwaters should reach the Menindee Lakes in NSW by Sunday January 17 but will not be under the control of the Murray-Darling Basin Authority until the storage level of 640 GL is reached. We realise management of the Murray-Darling Basin is a complicated matter but in the current circumstances we ask that you intervene in the national interest to ensure that water flows through to the sea.
This is Code Catastrophic for Australia’s River. We have a week to stop the cancer. The life of the Murray-Darling River is in your hands.
River, Lakes and Coorong Action Group Inc.
Winner 2009 Jill Hudson Environmental Award
PO Box 187 Milang 5256
An excellent letter.