Mildura Labor backs council push for basin royal commission

MILDURA’S Labor Party branch has backed a municipal push for a federal royal commission into management of the Murray-Darling Basin.

The local branch met this week and threw its support behind calls for an independent audit on water-saving schemes, trading, ownership, extraction and allocation, with the power to subpoena representatives including politicians, government agencies and peak bodies.

Mildura District Labor Party branch spokesman Tony Alessi said branch members recognised that water was the “single most critical issue” facing the region.

The Mildura Council motion calling for a federal royal commission received overwhelming support at a recent Municipal Association of Victoria (MAV) state council meeting.

Mr Alessi said the Mildura Labor Party branch wanted to add its support to council’s push.

“We are writing to Victorian Water Minister Lisa Neville to let her know that we are supporting the council in that endeavour,” Mr Alessi said.

“The more voices we get behind this, as a community, the more likely we are to be successful,” he said.

“This is a real community issue that needs everyone involved.

“The biggest risk for our community in the next few years is going to be water.”

Mr Alessi said tourism and agricultural production were the two biggest income-earners for the region and access to water had far-reaching impacts on the community as a whole.

“We live in the middle of a desert and we’re covered in dust constantly,” he said.

“If we can’t water, we’re going to be living in a desert rather just being surrounded by desert.

“So water is the single most critical issue affecting the long-term health of our community.”

Mr Alessi said the overdevelopment and overallocation of water were key drivers impacting on Sunraysia farmers.

“Our family farmers, who have traditionally been the farmers in our region, are being squeezed by corporates who have got deep pockets and are forcing water prices to go through the roof,” he said.

“They have obviously been allowed to do that by a system which has allowed the overdevelopment and overallocation of water.

“They are not doing anything illegal, but the system has allowed them to do that.

“If that means we need to curtail development — and Lisa Neville has already put a moratorium on new water extraction licences anyway, but I think New South Wales needs to do that as well.

“Our concern is for local growers — the families who have been here for years and years whose kids have all grown up on farms and I think we need to be protecting them.”