Helen Dalton confident Canberra protest will yield results

MEMBER for Murray Helen Dalton believes “we will know by March next year” whether this week’s Canberra protest by farmers will yield results.

Sunraysia growers were among the thousands to converge on Federal Parliament in a combined effort to highlight the failure of the Murray-Darling Basin Plan.

A vigil was held on the steps of Parliament House as part of the protest with fed-up farmers calling for a “major policy reform” or the plan to be “scrapped” before it caused too much damage.

Ms Dalton said the government had agreed to review water rules and classifications to see if more water can be freed up for drought-stricken irrigators.

“The government are finally considering the simple rule changes I have advocated for the past year,” she said.

“This includes re-classifying water lost when it is sent down the river – so it’s netted off against the environment rather than taken from farmers’ water allocation.

“This review of water rules and classification is to conclude by March next year. We will know by then whether farmers will get more water.”

Mrs Dalton said she was disappointed the National Farmers Federation (NFF) and NSW Nationals leader John Barilaro didn’t attend the protest.

“Some farmers travelled for more than eight hours to get to Canberra. Yet the NFF office is just five minutes away from the protest site – but not one NFF executive bothered to attend,” Mrs Dalton said

“Meanwhile, Nats leader John Barilaro spent the day at Coffs Harbour beach doing swim safety videos for international students.

“Sure, NFF and Barilaro don’t agree with everything the protesters were advocating. But when thousands of farmers give up two working days to travel to Canberra, their representatives should at least pay them the courtesy of visiting them and listening.”