Hopes evaporate for the Murray-Darling

John A Neve says:

06:40am | 21/01/10

Jamie,
Tells of the Howard plan of 2007, he goes on to claim that the current government has failed to implement it. What he does not tell us, is how much of this infrastructure had been designed, whether contracts had been let or how long was the construction time.

This government has been in power for two years, I know of very few large scale infrasrtucture that has been design and built in two years.

To think this man is one of our supposed leaders!!

Paul says:

08:48am | 21/01/10

And what sort of magic solution do you propose to pull out the thousands of tons of salt moving down the river system Jamie? The system is essentially poisoned with salt - water availability is a secondary issue to the salt load moving through the river and farming areas. And salt is a secondary issue to a long incompetent queue of federal and state politicians that have lined up to talk loudly but do nothing for years and years. And years. It’s teenage Harry Potter politics to say, you didn’t play any part in sinking the Titanic - but now you can raise the Titanic.

Colin says:

07:38am | 21/01/10

Jamie,
Hows about getting right to the foundational issue here viz. M-D and water? To wit, the Rudd Government’s long running, patently false allegations that the M-D problems are the result of Man-Made Global Warming, and above all, their use of that trojan horse as a means to a nefarious end.

Read the Canberra Times the other day? Even Australia’s most (ahem) august scientific body has now run for cover on the MMGW fraud -

“Australia’s peak science agency, the CSIRO, has backed away from attributing a decade of drought in Tasmania to climate change, claiming ‘the jury is still out’ on the science.

The comments follow the issuing of a CSIRO report yesterday, revealing drought has cut water availability in northern Tasmania’s premier wine growing region by 24 per cent, with riverflows reaching record lows. One of the report’s co-authors, hydrologist David Post, told The Canberra Times there was ‘‘no evidence’’ linking drought to climate change in eastern Australia, including the Murray-Darling Basin.”

http://www.canberratimes.com.au/news/local/news/general/jury-still-out-on-climate-change-csiro/1728307.aspx

Please get your priorities right, Jamie. Get this purely-political MMGW monkey (mange-ridden gorilla) off all our backs first. Then you might have some clear air to address water (mis)management.

iansand says:

07:54am | 21/01/10

I suspect that the Coalition policy on water is to legislate to outlaw droughts.  In the meantime, until they regain power, the policy is to say that the drought is all Mr Rudd’s fault.

This sort of article is magic wand politics.  Vote Liberal/National and the rains will come.

Murray says:

08:59am | 21/01/10

Jamie, you put this out so people think you and the Libs might be relevant to solution. Check vexnews archives for evidence of the real Jamie, the grubby Jamie, the ickie ickie yuckie Jamie. Jamie, you might want to refresh your memory too.

Ross says:

09:10am | 21/01/10

As a consequence of the heavy rains mostly in Northern NSW over the Christmas/New Year period there is now a moderate flood in the Darling River. So far some 800,000 megalitres of water have flowed past Bourke with considerably more to come.

The Federal Government have made much of their guess that Toorale (massive property south west of Bourke on the Darling) would have extracted 11,000 megalitres had the water licenses not been purchased by the Government. This would be approximately correct, but would include stock and domestic retention in the Warrego Dams.

In other words $23.75m was spent buying Toorale to save 1.4% of the flow so far! That’s some good economics right there…

Simon says:

09:13am | 21/01/10

“Water is the challenge of our generation.”
Exactly right, Jamie. That’s an astute observation from a junior Coalition MP yet Kevin Rudd and his senior minister can’t understand it. It just shows the dearth of talent and competence in the current Labor administration.
Rather than jet-setting around the world for futile conferences about how humans can supposedly reduce Earth temperatures by a couple of degrees, why doesn’t our pompous PM start trying to do something about ensuring water security in his own country? After all, that’s something over which he can have far more control than global temperatures.

persephone says:

01:39pm | 21/01/10

John A Neve

We all know that things were better in the past, in that glorious Golden Age which somehow has slipped from our grasp.

Please specify: how the average person in the street is worse off; and in what way your personal freedoms have been reduced.

Not saying you’re not right, just that sweeping statements are impossible to really refute.

John A Neve says:

02:37pm | 21/01/10

Persphone @1439hrs,

I am not going to give you a list of things you already, if you take an interest in our system you already know. If by your question you do not know how our liberties have been eroded, there is no point intrying to explain.

But blogs in my view give people the chance to put forward ideas to improve things. Rather than trying to prove you have read more than some one else.
Based on these blogs, most people don’t believe what they read anyway. So we are back to Pendulum Politics.

E says:

03:47pm | 21/01/10

I wonder how Rudd will deal with AGW being quietly put out to pasture, the great moral challenge of our age (telling the truth) - Rudd = Total Fail. But the libs will be just as bad, both wells are poisoned by the preselection process. And by voters blind loyalty to brand name parties - vote independent.

Lurch says:

01:28am | 22/01/10

I find it ironic in the extreme when people constantly point to Howard doing little with regard to this issue.
The state labor govt’s were in power through out Howards stay and thus they are now, yet people voted for Rudd because he was going to fix the problem once and for all.
Lets not forget that the buck stops with him…....or maybe it doesnt oe more to the point…..never did.

David Boyd says:

05:28pm | 22/01/10

Jamie,
The South Australian’s claim that the dreadful condition of the Lower Lakes is due to extractions and lack of fresh water from upstream. No mention of the fact that under natural conditions the Lower Lakes were sometimes salty and sometimes fresh depending on fresh water flows, or lack of them from upstream in Victoria, NSW, and Queensland. No mention of the impact of the building of “The Barrages” at the mouth of the lakes which converted the Lakes to all times fresh with the expectation that there would always be sufficient fresh water flows from upstream.

Under natural conditions with no dams in the Upper Murray catchment and no Snowy diversions, with the minimal run-off of the recent drought years, the Murray would have stopped flowing some three years ago. Salt water would have entered the Lakes and the lower reaches of the river itself as it always did under such dry conditions in the past, prior to the building of the Barrages. So it can be argued that the dire condition of the Lakes is largely a man-made problem.

Perhaps NSW and SA should do a deal:-
1) Somehow secure Broken Hill’s water supply without relying on Menindee Lakes. How did they get on in the mining hey-day before the Menindee Storage Scheme was built?
2) Engineer a much more efficient (deeper) storage at Menindee to service the needs of the Lower Darling irrigation industry.
3)Build the proposed weir at Wellington (SA) to service the Lower Lakes irrigation industry.
4)Remove The Barrages and return the Lower Lakes to more like their natural condition.

Thank you Ross for quoting my blog!