Sharman Stone MP

 

“Now we are told that the Murray Darling Basin Authority’s public exposure of a discussion paper that identifies how much water will be clawed back from communities will be put on hold until after the election.

 

“Clearly Penny Wong knows how disastrous the further claw back of water from food producers will be and she does not want to face the music before the election. She has no answers to the hard questions. For example, where is food security from Australia going to come from when irrigators have lost another 20%, 30% or 40% of their water?

 

“These are questions she knows are life and death issues for rural communities like ours,” Dr Stone said.

 

“Minister Wong is also anxious to let the Green‘s Party off the hook. The Green’s Party is just as keen as the Labor Party to buy back water from so called willing sellers to flush down our rives as a feel good measure for metropolitan Australia.

 

“Given the paper to be put out by the Murray Darling Basin Authority was to be a draft for comment and discussion only, it is extraordinary that it has now been put on hold until after the election.

 

“Clearly, the Labor Government will be able to side-step the issues of sustainable communities and a sustainable environment and their failure in regard to both over the last three years.

 

Sharman Stone said the deferment of the draft paper should be seen for exactly what it is. The Labor Party’s bad news put off to a later date in the hope that rural communities will forget what is coming down the line in the form of a train wreck.

 

“The Coalition will do things very differently,” Sharman Stone said.