The NO WATER NO FUTURE RALLY
Rally Point: 35 Wills St, Bendigo, Near the CBD, Jacinta Allan Electorate Office
Date: 22nd August, 11.00am
Key Note Speakers: To be announced.
Street Parking Available.
We must call on you once again to help us fight the North South Pipeline. This plan will affect generations of our people and this is the time to stop this madness. The Brumby government is clearly shaken by our opposition. Indeed, the majority of people oppose this project, the only opposition coming from a pig headed Brumby Government.
Recently the Sun Herald conducted a well participated poll asking who supported the North South Pipeline, 96% of the people said they did not. People as diverse as Dr Tim Flannery, Brendan Nelson, Dr Bob Brown have all spoke against the pipeline of late.
It is time to add your voice and let us send a clear message to Brumby that we don't want this pipeline and will continue to fight until it is stopped.
Come for the day and do some shopping or come for an hour to do your bit. We need you.
EVERYONE WELCOME
We need help to spread the word. Ring five of your neighbors' and tell them to ring five of theirs.
Mildura Members
The phone number for people to ring to book onto the Mildura buses is: 03 50188 100 which is the Mildura Rural City service desk. They will take names and number. The bus leaves at 6am from Orange Avenue carpark and returns around 7pm.
We can pick up in Red Cliffs at Big Lizzie and in Ouyen at Blackburn Park.
Map - 35 Wills St, Bendigo
Time to dither about the Murray has run out
The AGE Editorial , June 21, 2008Senator Wong perhaps does not wish to give any hint that she might be preparing to be the minister who signs the death warrant of internationally acclaimed wetlands, and Mr Holding is a member of a Government noted for not bending to public criticism. But at the very least, the parlous state of the Goulburn revealed in the audit justifies a reassessment of the pipeline plan.
CLICK HERE FOR THE FULL REPORT
The North South Pipeline from The Murray Darling Basin to Melbourne is an Issue of National Importance
The Victorian Labor Government is insistent on building a pipeline from the Goulburn River across the Great Dividing Range to Sugarloaf Reservoir. This pipe is known as the North South Pipeline (NS Pipeline). The 75 billion litres of water in the NS Pipeline will leave the Murray Darling Basin to support Melbourne’s consumption. In Northern Victoria, the removal of the water will have drastic and detrimental effects on the farming areas, the social fabric of the region, the environment.
Essentially this pipeline will remove billions of litres of water from the Dry North affecting the Goulburn and Murray Rivers and many rural communities. This has been done without consultation and without mandate by an unelected Premier whose government's draconian style has alienated 100,000's of people in country Victoria at a time of extreme drought and suffering.
The Plug the Pipe Group was formed in June 2007 and now has over 2700 members (and growing) consisting of environmentalists, farmers, tourist operators, businessmen, urban and rural people. Our membership traverses the state from Mildura in the North West to Yea in the North East. Please Join Us.
Potential red faces in Tasmania deal
Kenneth Davidson , July 7, 2008 - 5:53AM, Fairfax Media
Extract : The Tasmanian pipeline would also make the $1 billion North-South pipeline a stranded asset. If the Victorian Government has secret agreements in place for these two projects, the difference in the cost of water for Melburnians over 25 years would be $20 billion in todays dollars. But if due process has been followed and no contracts have been signed, no damage will have been done to Victorias interests.
The same cannot be said for the political interests of the Brumby Government.
Against the flow
By Jo Chandler , June 7, 2008
BARLOW also objects to the water trading that allows big agribusiness to soak up a growing share of water supply, and the notion of large-scale water diversions ? pumping and piping water around states or nations, from where it exists in nature to the big cities, industries, or agricultural areas where it's consumed. Such scenarios set the needs of rural, indigenous and farm communities against urban centres, she argues ? an observation echoed in the angry bush push against a north-south pipeline in Victoria.
"These are very hard questions that have to do with the global systems, and global values of economic globalisation. Local communities know this, they know that something is profoundly wrong."
Quotes from our Guest Book
As a Koorie I think that the Brumby Government is a disgrace. The Goulburn river was never meant to flow over the Great Dividing Range. It offends my heritage, spiritual beliefs and threatens evidence of my peoples existence. Bulldozer Brumby - Just run over another Blackman!
Michael, Melbourne
I am against the "pipe" as it is a shortterm reactive measure by the current government to a long term problem that governments have turned a blind eye to in the past. If they truly want to put the pipe inplace and look after the areas from which they are draining the water from, let them give some positive news to the local areas ie ensure that Lake Eilden is filled first - to 100%, this will give the local communities a fall back position if water does run low or out. The pipe could then be a partially viable proposition. For the long term the government needs to think things through and get Water Ministers who know what the subject is all about and not newly appointed politicians who come into portfolios the subject matter of which they have not knowledge waht so ever.
Andrew Roff, Berwick
Short sighted, short termed, slow death!
Simon Kennedy, Numurkah
Over the last few years it has been hard enough for the farmers, households, employment etc. Mr brumby have you know shame, how dare you remove these people's lively hoods, who do you really think you are?. I am an a member of 4 generations of family in the Eildon area. I also know how hard it is to try and survive with very little water let alone make a living. PLEASE RECONSIDER
Kathy Taylor, Tabourie Lake, NSW
The Food Bowl Steering committee draft report make astounding reading and it is frightening to realise that many of the members are dairyfarmers with significant influence in the industry. On page 31 of the report, it states "The number of dairy businesses will continue to decline but produce 50% more milk. Farms will increase from the current 200 cow average to say 400 cows." If farms are milking 100% more cows and only producing 50% more milk thheir efficiency will be declining rapidly.
Neil Pankhurst, Tongala
How ridiculous to rob the farmers of water needed to grow crops just so Melbourne people can flush toilets! I have rain water tanks at home and run the entire house from them for at least 9 months of the year. If all Melbournians did the same, Brumbys' stupid pipeline would be redundant.
Russell Bunce, Oakleigh
Please don't take away the farmer's water!
The residents of Melbourne should be encouraged to use less water - it's not an unending resource. We in Canada, who are blessed with a tremendous supply of fresh water, have to learn to curb our use as well. Don't start taking from Peter to pay Paul!!
Alison MacIntosh, Mississauga, Ontario, Canada
Keep up the effort, If we fail, would the last one to leave the "Foodbowl" Shut off the lights please.
Kevin Bourke, Nathalia
The New Water Lords
Ellen Hogan,
Mansfield Vic
Virtuality defied reality when last month the Goulburn River was no longer deemed to be part of the Murray Darling Basin system, following the recent signing of the National Water Plan.
The deal in this instance was that the Goulburn River would not be influenced by decisions made by the Murray Darling Basin Commission and therefore not be part of the National Water Plan.
This has left the door open for the Victorian Government to push ahead to augment a water grid throughout Victoria that relies largely on the Goulburn River system to supply it.
Lake Eildon is the lynchpin; the storage dam on the upper Goulburn River. At the end of April 2008 it had 13% available for use. It is nearly empty.
The water grid is seen to be a mechanism for a new water market for Victoria connecting irrigation and urban users to the one system but the winners from this situation will be the water traders. Kenneth Davidson, the Age, exposed this approach April 28, 2008 when he said:
The trading in virtual water has come about since the Labour Government, through the then Minister, John Thwaites, passed legislation to unbundle water licenses.
This meant that water could be separated from the land and therefore became a highly sought after commodityby managed funds and investment banks.
Our food growers in the Goulburn Valley region, who provide 73% of Australia’s food, are under enormous pressure due to the severity of the drought and current water policy trading and all this in the midst of a world food shortage.
The removal of 829 dairy farmers and 350 mixed farmers from the irrigation district is part of the governments plan under the foodbowl modernization project and this may be just the start of it.
The biggest environmental catastrophe is the Murray River that is dying from the mouth up and further bulk extractions of water out of the Goulburn River, one of its main tributaries, will only exacerbate the problem.
It is obvious that the environment is paying dearly for a lack of interest over the years and the Victorian Government seems hell bent on making it worse.
The north south pipeline (Sugarloaf Interconnector) and its 75GL of water is one of only a number of bulk extractions already in the planning stage including the Goldfields Super pipe (45GL) that is already supplying Bendigo and soon Ballarat.
These pipelines include spur connections ready to add further pipelines to supply other major rural centres.
Water will be diverted south out of the Goulburn system instead of being used to grow food and contribute to the health of the river systems.
Recently, a four member panel, set up by the Minister for Planning, Justin Madden heard many submissions opposing the north south pipeline and a Project Impact Assessment (PIA) undertaken by the Alliance. This process followed on from a questionable handball back to the Victorian Government by the Federal Minister, Peter Garrett.
The Alliance (State Government, Melbourne Water, SKM, GHD and John Holland Constructions) argued that the terms of reference for the project only enabled discussion on the impact the 75GL of water would have on the Goulburn system from Lake Eildon to Nagambie.
It also included the actual pipeline route at the off take point on the Goulburn River through the Yea River Valley and Yarra Glen to Sugarloaf reservoir on Melbourne’s fringe in the Yarra Valley.
Many of the submission were deemed outside the terms of reference by the Alliance as they questioned the water savings to be found. This was despite the fact that the 75GL proposed for Melbourne is from highly questionable savings in the irrigation district well beyond Nagambie and the many environmental concerns for the health of the river system including the Murray.
When questioned to clarify this anomaly the Panel refused to rule on the matter.
The final route for the pipeline is still undecided and the PIA report was no more than a desktop analysis of the many issues associated with such a large infrastructure project. The lack of knowledge from the Alliance was due to the short timeframe of the project, not able to undertake seasonal studies and no access to many of the properties.
The north south pipeline corridor will reek havoc on the environmental values at the off take on the Goulburn, rip a 70km swathe through the Yea River valley, over the Great Divide and down into the Yarra Valley.
It will cut through floodplains, wetlands, require 187 stream crossings, remove old paddock trees and 80 hectares of the Toolangi State Forest not to mention all the other native vegetation in its way.
The project has the potential to cause severe sediment movement across the valleys, displace acid soils, increase saline water runoff (dewatering of trenches) pollute surface water and groundwater tables that in some areas are only 3 metres below the surface of this beautiful valley.
I have not even touched on a magnitude of other factors such as power generation, greenhouse gas emissions, carbon trading, traffic disruption on the Melba Highway, compensation to landowners and the infrastructure required.
The list of environmental, social and economic concerns was very high and not many answers have been provided.
Many of the measures to mitigate problems were quashed by the evidence provided to the panel by landowners along the Goldfields pipeline (Goulburn River to Bendigo/Ballarat).
In a signed affidavit, the Panel also heard that a senior member of the Alliance had stated at a number of meetings that if no water is available from Lake Eildon due to low inflows, the pipeline may only be used once.
The project makes a mockery out of the plethora of catchment management legislation, policies, guidelines etc to protect catchments, water quality and biodiversity.
The average person must jump through many hoops when developing but the Alliance can undertake a desktop analysis of a project of this magnitude.
The silence is deafening from the government authorities in the northeast that are the custodians of our catchments and waterways and we feel that they have let us down.
The social implications of the new water policy are sorely lacking but we (city and country folk everywhere) are the ones expected to pay for it and it will come at a very high cost.
The irony of this whole sham is that Melbourne does not need water from Lake Eildon via the Goulburn River to survive, it has other less costly and sustainable options to enhance its supply and I am not talking about desalination plants.
As these options are not being explored fully it is infuriating to those of us in northern Victoria that the State Government appears to be protecting its own catchment areas whilst it crucifies ours.
We believe that the State Government is being ruthless in its quest to control water in Victoria and in the hands of the new water lords may not be to the benefit of all.
Footnote
If you are as concerned about the environmental devastation the pipeline will create, the loss of food production and jobs in the foodbowl as we are - please write to the Premier of Victoria, your local member of Parliament, the Federal Ministers for the Environment and Water and join Plug the Pipe.
New leaks spring from Brumby's water plan
Andrew Bolt, June 18, 2008 12:00am, The Herald Sun
The Brumby and Rudd Governments have a $2 billion plan to plug irrigation leaks and improve water measurements to save almost half the 900 billion litres they estimate are lost there each year.
But the rains have been so bad that the losses over the past decade have in fact been just 690 billion litres a year. Which means Melbourne's share of the savings from plugging such leaks would drop from 75 billion to 57 billion litres.
No wonder farmers are deeply hostile to the pipe, rightly fearing that if fast-growing Melbourne still runs short of water, it will steal their share rather than let Australia's second-biggest city run dry.
This, when many farmers already don't have enough irrigation water to grow crops. This, when they know Melbourne's water supplies have fallen now to below 30 per cent of dam capacity, with no soaking in sight.
What's more, one of the Government's main water "savings" is simply to take from farmers water that hadn't been measured by existing meters, even though this free water may have been relied upon to grow crops. Think how farmers feel.
CLICK HERE FOR THE FULL REPORT
The Premier has been Poorly advised Look at the above graph and then click HERE.
Quote : Alistair Watson,Victorian water economist
“this is slick accounting, not water saving” (Foodbowl Savings)