SUNRAYSIA growers will take their angst over the Murray-Darling Basin Plan to the steps of Federal Parliament in Canberra next month.
Growers say they have become increasingly frustrated by government inaction over the failings of the basin plan, which they have described as a “train wreck”.
Of significant concern is the amount of “environmental” water that is running past irrigation properties and out to sea while family farms and whole communities are closing down “in droves”.
Sunraysia Citrus Growers chairman Kevin Cock yesterday called on citrus growers throughout the region to get on board the campaign.
However, he said he had also been in discussions with local representatives from the wine grape, table grape, dried fruit and stone fruit industries to help highlight the plight facing Sunraysia irrigators.
“People in the city don’t know that we are still tipping water into the sea when there are towns drying up in the upper reaches of the Murray-Darling catchment area,” Mr Cock said.
“At the end of the day, when we tighten our belts, everyone has got to tighten their belts and that’s what is happening right up the Darling.
“We’re not going to be there to bash them over the head, we’re going to be there to explain the train wreck that is actually starting to happen again.”
Mr Cock said citrus growers had been planning a march on Canberra since low Victorian allocations were announced, when water continued to run out into the Southern Ocean.
“When we are the driest continent in the world, what’s the point of tipping water into the ocean and restricting food production?” he said.
“It’s pretty dumb to do what we’re doing, which is tipping water into the ocean and then taking it around to the desalinisation plant, taking the salt out of it and sending it back to grow fodder.”
Mr Cock said he was hoping the convoy to Canberra would make federal politicians, as well as people around the country, sit up and take notice.
“If we can fill six busloads, that’s going to make a big impact, but who knows — we’re encouraging anyone who uses water to come on board,” he said.
“There are some pretty angry people out there so it would be great to get them all together and say, ‘Look, we’re all in this together’.
“It’s embarrassing that our children and grandchildren in New South Wales go to the same schools as those in Victoria, go to the same supermarkets, we pump out of the same river to grow the same crops to sell in the same market, but we’ve got different rules.
“The situation couldn’t get much worse — we’ve had two droughts in 15 years and it’s been managed very poorly.”
Mr Cock said last week’s Australian Competition and Consumer Competition inquiry into water markets was among more than 30 inquiries, forums, workshops and seminars investigating the Murray-Darling Basin since 2004, but little progress on river management had been made.
“It’s depressing that nothing changes,” he said.
He said protest organisers planned to take some locally grown produce with them for the December 2 protest to share with federal politicians.
