John Brumby fails Victoria on Murray Darling Water
Wednesday, January 20, 2010
John Brumby and his Environment Minister Gavin Jennings should hang their heads in shame for failing Victoria’s environment by not obtaining any additional water from the flood waters in the Murray-Darling Basin, Shadow Minister for the Environment Mary Wooldridge said today.
“South Australian Premier Mike Rann stood up for his community and has had some level of success in obtaining additional environmental water for the Lower Lakes, but John Brumby has gone missing and Victoria will suffer as a result,” Ms Wooldridge said.
Federal Water Minister and South Australian Senator Penny Wong has announced that the South Australian Lower Lakes will receive an additional 148 billion litres from this flooding after negotiations with the New South Wales government, but this water will flow past nationally significant wetland sites in Victoria which will not receive a drop.
“The Lindsay-Wallpolla Islands site, downstream of where the Darling River meets the Murray, is a part of one of the 6 Icon Sites in the Murray-Darling Basin and the area is struggling due to the ongoing drought, yet it doesn’t seem that the Brumby Government even thought about accessing any additional water for this environmentally significant landscape,” Ms Wooldridge said.
“Maybe John Brumby does not want to highlight the fact that they are taking environmental water from the Murray-Darling Basin to be sent to Melbourne via the north-south pipeline.
“Apparently in Australia now you need to shout the loudest to receive any assistance for the environment, and while John Brumby and his government drain much-needed environmental water from the Murray-Darling Basin all we get from them is silence,” Ms Wooldridge said.
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