THREE key Federal Government ministers are being urged to tour Murray-Darling Basin communities from Wentworth to Bourke to ensure proper resources and service packages are available to struggling communities leading into summer.
Retired Coomealla irrigator Howard Jones has contacted Member for Farrer and Environment Minister Sussan Ley, Health Minister Greg Hunt and David Littleproud, who is Water Resources and Drought Minister, to tour of the region and get a firsthand appreciation for what communities are currently battling and likely to face in the coming months.
“There is a crying need for, first of all (the Ministers) to be seen out there,” Mr Jones said on Sunday.
“And they need to be thinking about packages that are quite unique to those people — whether they’re Aboriginals; whether they’re townfolk in Pooncarie or Menindee or Wilcannia; or grazing people; or in the case of those below Menindee, the irrigation folk.
“The health issue is there now and it is going to be compounded when we get our first week of 40 degrees (temperatures) and the fish start floating to the top.
“It needs the Helath Minister in particular to see it and make sure the programs that are there are fully primed and ready to go, and listen to thee people out there.”
Mr Jones is hoping the ministers will tour within the next six weeks, a timeframe he sees as critical before inevitable fish kills in the Darling River.
“If people though the last (fish kills) were bad, the next ones are going to be catastrophic,” he said.
“The impact of that alone on the Aboriginal communities and the townspeople is going to be profound.”
Mr Jones said there had been a lot of talk about drought right throughout the basin, including communiques from the Murray-Darling Basin Authority and the MDBA community committee.
He said communities from Bourke to Wentworth had been in and out of “man-made drought virtually since 2000”.
“Some of that comes down to our maker, some of it is down to very poor administration by the feds (Federal Government) in the first place with managing Menindee and then the 2012 fiasco with the Barwon-Darling Water Sharing Plan (WSP),” he said.
He said it was clear the WSP had impacted on low river flows throughout the system and that policy change was needed.
“Low flows are just not arriving,” he said.
“Sussan (Ley) is my representative so I’m asking her personally to come out on behalf of her people along the river and conduct this tour with David Littleproud, who is the Water Minister and can take some actions — particularly some of the agricultural packages — and of course Greg Hunt, the Minister for Health.
“Each one can make a difference out here.
“However small it may seem to them, it might huge to keep some people on this planet, sadly, but a whole raft of people on their country, on their properties and in their towns, with the businesses that go with that.”
Meanwhile, the MDBA will hold an information session at Wentworth Town Hall on September 30, which is open to the first 100 people who book via email at seasonaloutlook@mdba.gov.au
A representative from the Bureau of Meteorology will provide a seasonal weather outlook, the MDBA will have a river update and the Commonwealth Environmental Water Holder will have a summary of environmental watering for summer at the session, which runs from 11am-2pm.
