OAKESHOTT INDEPENDENT
OPINION PIECE
I am, you are, we are Australian. On this, I agree with the Prime Minister, as I am sure 99 per cent of the population does.
Yet the proposal to dam the mighty Clarence River and to pipe water out of the area is not nation building, nor is it very Australian. Rather it is treating the one million residents of North Coast of NSW as second class Australians, with our economy and lifestyle ripped to shreds to help the poorly planned growth sprawl in southeast Queensland. An example of un-Australian values of robbing the "North Coast" Peter, to pay the Gold Coast "Paul".
But government be warned, and North Coast voters get mobilised, as a similar debate just occurred in Taree and Harrington at the last state election, and the ballot box responded with force.
In last months state election, the state Liberal and National parties proposed turning the Barnard River - an east/west river - into a north/south river, to supply water to Chaffey Dam at Tamworth, to quench the thirst of the marginal seat voters in a seat that the National Party were desperate to win.
The Barnard is a key tributary of the unique Manning River, one of the few delta rivers in the world with dual entries to the ocean. This manmade "solution" to redirect the river, would have had major impacts on the local river economies, the environment, fish and water qualities, and inevitably led to increased siltation, already a major concern.
Thankfully, the river communities such as Harrington and Coopernook were onto this absurd policy, with 3 out of every 4 voters rejecting this absurd Liberal/National policy at the ballot box.
Obviously, the Deputy Prime Minister - a Manning River resident, and the Prime Minister, a North Coast holidaymaker, have chosen to ignore this message and continue to forge ahead with quite absurd plans to redirect river flows at their own whim. The march of folly with water policy continues.
It is therefore imperative that North Coast voters treat this as the cynical political exercise that it is. After all, this damming and redirecting water flows only occurs around marginal seats, and suggests this is more about marginal seat politics in southeast Queensland than it is about water.
Cynical politics needs to be dealt with cynically by the voter. I will be urging all North Coast voters to put any party or person last or low down on the federal election ballot paper who doesn't recognise and appreciate the importance of the local river to our local communities. In many ways, these rivers are the backbone of the valley communities that make up the North Coast.
And one further point to consider. If you were going to mess with environmental flows into three rivers, how would you politically sell it? What about mask all this with a national water plan to help environmental flows into an icon river like the Murray-Darling?
For all those who got sucked in by the national water plan on the Murray-Darling, where are you now on the environmental vandalism proposed on the North Coast?
Or has the Prime Minister successfully wedged and dog whistled again, this time dividing the various lovers of various rivers, as well as appearing statesmanlike in delivering water down the Murray and for southeast Queensland. But prime minister, what about the rest of us Australians? Don't we matter?
13 April 2007