How does a community that has struggled for decades to get governments to focus on the mismanagement of the River Murray, Lakes and Coorong respond when they read in the Sunday Mail that “former Liberal Premier Dean Brown has been paid more than $800,000 for advice to the State Government on how to tackle the state’s crippling drought”? (Renato Castello, 3/01/10)
Suspicion: Why is this story breaking now? We are 77 days out from a state election, an election that should focus on water. Is this a deflection? Could we focus on the real issue please? Water.
Anger: How does a farmer, whose family has spent generations building a livelihood, community and knowledge of the local ecology and who might get up to $150,000 (conditions apply) in an exceptional circumstances exit grant feel?
Frustration: Call that “consultation”? Over the past few years we have experienced a deeply flawed process. Community questions have languished. Answers have not been forthcoming. We have argued the problem is over-allocation and mis-management, not drought. Local knowledge has been disrespected. At what cost?
Curiousity: What qualifications should a consultant have? Whose interests do they represent? What are their terms of reference? To what levels of public scrutiny are they subjected? What ever happened to notions of “conflict of interest”? How many roles can one consultant play?
See Comments to the Sunday Mail article which suggest many share our concerns. So where to now?
The Big Picture
Q. What is really at stake here?
A. The very future of Australia’s River.
When the Murray Mouth closed for the first time in 1981 that should have been our signal that the system was over-allocated, that we were taking more than was flowing into the River, that our practices were unsustainable. But no, we continued to allocate water. Irrigated plantings increased. Now vines are being pulled up and the land is being abandoned. Under whose administrations did this occur? Are any of our hands clean?
We need leadership, courage and a plan that addresses the health of the whole eco-system and we need it now. If this were a bush fire or flood, we would have declared a national emergency.
Seems we are still living with the dream of the “lucky country”.
Do we still imagine we can live on a waterfront, sail our boats, catch those fish, ski and paddle? The lucky few may inhabit this dream but we are on borrowed time.
The River Murray is ailing but it can be saved if we act now. The floods of the northern basin and the drought of the southern basin are exacerbated by poor past management practices. This is a man-made problem and it can be solved with wise management. Not with more weirs and engineering interventions, but by drawing on the knowledge of local communities, open scientific research and respectful, public, two-way consultation. We can do better.
It is clearly a strategic “leak” from the government, designed to (a) deflect anger away from the government onto Dean Brown i.e. get the media to “shoot the messenger” (b) try to smear the opposition - guilt by association (afterall he is an ex liberal premier)(c) make anything but the parlous state of the river and lower lakes the issue in the lead up to the state election 3 months from now, Rann and Co know that water is a major vote loser, so you need to get the plebs to “look over there”. Folks this is modern politics 101 at play. so lets not get dragged into this sideshow, Dean Brown is not the issue, Rann Maywald et al are.