Eco-terrorists continue to chip away at the economic fabric of the nation.
Today, the Federal and NSW Governments announced they have purchased Toorale Station near Bourke to use as a National Park. This apparently will free up 20 Gigalitres to the Murray-Darling River system and "even more in flood years."
Unfortunately it doesn't work that way. The property has a licence to use up to 20 Gigalitres of water from the river, but it can only do so when the water is there to use. This purchase will not magically put more water into the river. It will only stop people from taking it out.
And it is good that when the river is in flood they will be able to still not take any water out. In a flood year, 20 Gigalitres is nothing, it is just a fraction of what goes past. And in a flood year there is so much water that it doesn't make that much difference to anyone.
But by taking a big rural company out of production they will be decimating the economy of Bourke, throwing dozens of employees and contractors out of work.
But who cares? It's only people.
To put this into perspective, it is like cleaning up Sydney's air pollution by closing down the CBD. Yes it might clean up all that air, remove tonnes of CO2 from the atmosphere, and solve all those traffic problems, but it would stuff up the economy of Sydney.
But the Bourke is on the wrong side of the Great Divide, so their welfare doesn't matter that much.
Sorry I'm being so cynical, but I get really angry when city-based politicians pursue policies that will eventually kill the rural parts of this country, just to please city-based environmentalists.
In this and in other water buybacks, I wonder what can happen should the government want to reverse their decision in future years.If water licences exceed their current dollar value, the government would be selling at a profit, which is hardly fair. Bringing the price down would be unfair to those who bought in the meantime. How long would we need dams near-full to convince a government that it's safe (and necessary) to release more water?
ReplyDeleteWith the Greens being so influential at the moment, having dams full for a prolonged period of time would be used to prove that we don't need them and we should let the rivers "run free." It's the logical next step.This afternoon, Penny Wong has admitted what everybody with half a clue about water already knew- this buy-back won't affect the lower Murray. Strange that! Who'd have thought that having the right to buy water when it's available at some point in the future wouldn't affect the conditions of lakes a thousand kilometres away?I only discovered recently that it's reasonably common for people to think that only rain that falls directly over a dam ends up in the water. The concepts of run-off and "catchment area" seem to only resonate with engineers apparently.I guess all of this confirms why people are so credulous about climate change.
ReplyDeleteMatters with marine fisheries are even more tricky. I understand your anger only too well.
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