Upper Goulburn River Catchment Association spokesperson Jan Beer said the ready acceptance that rural communities and jobs could be sacrificed to achieve political gain was a sad reflection on today’s governments.
She says Murray-Darling Basin Plan changes legislated by the Albanese Government typify broken promises, failed commitments and a refusal to listen to communities and acknowledge the value of their input.
“Occasionally we have times when democracy fails the people it is supposed to protect. This is one of those occasions,” Mrs Beer said.
“As a result, so much trust has been lost, because our politicians have not focused on achieving the best outcome for all stakeholders.
“Instead, the focus has been on trying to shore up votes in important areas, in particular South Australia and the capital city environmental vote.
“So in this instance, unfortunately our democratic system has encouraged political gain, rather than rewarding collaborative behaviour.”
Mrs Beer said as a result, we have highly paid bureaucrats who are incentivised to achieve tick-the-box outcomes rather than being encouraged to develop collaborative policy and implementation which puts communities in the driver’s seat.
“Due to failed policy outcomes and not recognising potential solutions, so many of our farmers and community leaders are feeling demoralised, as they have seen the level of politics in which the Basin Plan is embroiled hit a new low.
“We have worked extremely hard to play a role in implementing a balanced and effective plan including significant effort, often voluntarily, but nothing our advocacy groups do seems to make any difference.
“In good faith we take time out of schedules, away from our businesses and families to develop solutions and attend meetings for better outcomes, but it just doesn’t happen.
“We encourage authorities to work with farmers and recognise that 93 per cent of wetlands in the Basin are on farms. We call for environmental outcomes to be the focus, instead of water volumes that have unintended adverse consequences. Again, nothing happens.
“We try to highlight how farmers love creating healthy environments and so much can be achieved by working with them. This gets ignored, just as our communities get ignored.
“Federal Water Minister Tanya Plibersek refuses to effectively engage and does not even answer invitations to visit our region so we can show her what can be done.
“And to rub salt into the wound, when the divisive legislation of the government is passed by the parliament, as quick as a flash her department sends invitations to a webinar which, in effect, will tell us how they are going to destroy our farms and communities.
“Democracy is no doubt the best system in the world. But it’s easy to see how some people get so disenchanted with this ‘best system’ when they get treated in the manner we have been treated over these Basin Plan changes.”
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