from Senator Fraser Anning
Having grown up in the bush, a healthy and balanced environment is very dear to my heart. I commend environmentalists for sharing that desire for a well-balanced and sustainable future.
I am frustrated however, when Green politicians take normal environmental events and
scaremonger people to gain votes.
Scientists can argue over whether the planet will warm over the coming decades.
However, I am not aware of any evidence that the current temperatures are outside the normal (geologically) recent cycles.
Australia is a land of droughts, floods and bushfires yet none of these recent events have matched those which occurred a century or more ago.
Before recent times, the Murray Darling (which extends into Qld) was often a dry river bed in summer, This left numerous unconnected water holes right up until the 1920`s when Australians began building weirs and Dams.
Did fish die in large amounts before then? Yes
Were there algal blooms in water holes, killing fish before then – Yep.
Unfortunately, grizzling Greens have hoodwinked a gullible media into believing that every natural disaster is our fault.
They blame us for not living some utopian “cave man” style existence whilst
ignoring the population explosion which will grow Africa’s population from 1 billion today to over 4 billion in just 80 years.
The Commonwealth Environmental Water Holder (CEWH) manages some 3,000 gigalitres of water.
Thanks to pressure from the Green lobby, the CEWH decided to send environmental water down the Murray Darling system from Medindee. This water was earmarked to go the southern lagoon in the Coorong.
Unfortunately, there isn’t any way for that water to get into the highly saline lower Coorong.
It appears the CEWH wasted water to achieve nothing, instead of keeping it in NSW where it could have done some actual good.
These highly idealistic and impractical decisions infuriate irrigators and fishermen.
I believe it’s time we got our priorities right and recognise productivity as the first priority for water use.
In order to ensure the best outcome, environmental issues should be dealt with via a cost benefit analysis and not according to some ill-conceived thought bubble, hatched by well-meaning meddlers in inner city Melbourne or Sydney.
None of us like to see a fish kill. But many of us would like to see impractical, wasteful environmental extremism die.
Well stated Peter.
However what really needs cleaning out are the sycophants that we endure in this Government… They take a Foreign oath, an oath that is different to the one that was created at Federation. They thought that we would never notice; We have…
This and successive Governments have not been ours since circa 1953 and more specifically 1973 [Whitlam].
We endure Administrators working for the UN, they are not our Government, they are Foreign and that is why they are not listening to us.
That Government flies a Blue Ensign flag suspended in mid air. This flag is Military [Government][Corporate], not civilian. Many are waking up…
Our true civil flag is the Red Ensign. Have attached a link:
https://www.ausflag.com.au/red_ensign_2.asp
Then listen to Stephen spell it out loud and clear [language warning] this bloke has clearly had enough and if you listen to what he is saying it will become clear as to what the problem is and why these Foreign oath takers need to be cleaned out…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ikSUSc20fA
It is always easy to raise criticism however it remains that whilst we all whinge about what they do or fail do, we fail to see that our true Old Parliament sits idle waiting for good men and women to occupy it. All the Federal signs of authority are there for all to see and standing in plain sight under the oath of Federation, protected by the Federal coat of Arms [Lion and Unicorn], void of anyone sitting under the jurisdiction of the civilian [We the People] Red Ensign Flag on the land…
So I guess the question that begs an answer is when are we going to step up to the plate and occupy it…
Please conduct due diligence and verify the facts put forward.
Thanks Brian, unfortunately back then as it is now farmers had to grow food for the cities. There was no cotton growing in the early days.Ed
The other side of the debate.
All the photographs and newspaper reports of the Murray River with no flow come from three years (1901,1915 and 1923) and from three locations, and these were all downstream of major irrigation areas that were busy pumping out water during droughts.
In drought in1915 the middle Murray had dried up, but the Goulburn Weir on the Goulburn River was diverting 500ML a day upstream.
The fact that irrigation was the cause of the almost dry river bed we know from photographs was well reported in newspapers and government documents at the time, so much so that in 1915 the governments of the day agreed to a schedule of irrigation pumping so downstream settlements could get water. Sure enough, when they stopped pumping the water out, the river flowed downstream again. It is only with the passage of time that these became known as natural events.
https://www.theland.com.au/story/5403621/drought-myth-holds-murray-darling-back/
From ino on the Darling: “Although its flow is extraordinarily irregular (the river dried up on no fewer than forty-five occasions between 1885 and 1960), in the later 19th century the Darling became a major transportation route…”
I heard about the Bradford Scheme decades ago and thought it had merit. It certainly needs consideration, but having lived on the Clarence River for 30 years now, it is not just a simple matter of taking water from rivers that appear to be full. e.g. The Clarence is open to the sea and is therefore salty (Brine) for many kilometers upstream and is not suitable for diversion for crops or farming.. What would probably work is a series of small diversion dams that could collect water during floods, but left in the river system otherwise. However, the big rivers on the East Coast need to be flushed by the floods as well, for the valuable fishing industry, not just the inland ones, to keep them healthy.
FISH KILL SHOWS MURRAY-DARLING BASIN AUTHORITY FAILURE
Numerous dead fish now floating down the Darling River and in the Menindee Lakes is more evidence that the Murray-Darling Basin Authority (MDBA) has mismanaged the basin, as the CEC has long documented. So-called “environmental flows” since the MDBA’s notorious “Basin Plan” commenced in 2012 have flushed precious water into swamps and out to sea, and in the process caused riverbank erosion previously never seen. Now there’s no water left when it’s needed most! And the failure to build the Clarence River Scheme—which has been on the books in some form since at least the early 1920s—means that water from the flash flooding that hit the Clarence Valley in October 2018 did not get to flow down the Darling River.
As of 22 January, the Menindee Lakes held a mere 3.6 per cent of their capacity. The lakes have an official nominal combined capacity of 1,731 gigalitres (GL), three and half times the capacity of Sydney Harbour, but during floods can fill to more than 2,000 GL. Under the “environmental flow” regime, water may be released to leave a mere 480 GL (28 per cent) in the lakes. Environmental releases from the lakes have enraged many locals at Broken Hill who depend on the water. They blamed a release of about 300 GL in late 2012 and early 2013 as contributing to the lakes running dry. Dam levels recovered in 2016 with good rains from August through to December. But from mid-December 2016 to present, dam levels have continuously trended downwards. Despite this, in October 2017 the MDBA ordered the release of about 70 GL of water, much to the horror of many locals as the ABC’s Sofie Wainwright reported from Broken Hill at the time: “Given that Lake Victoria is 99 per cent full and there’s more than 90 per cent water in Lake Hume, I was hoping that they wouldn’t be considering [releases] until 2018”, Lower Darling irrigator Rachel Strachan said.
These “environmental flows” were never based on sound science. Numerous reports identify that some of these flows are so damaging that several metres of river frontage are lost to erosion. Riverside trees collapse under these man-made floods and silt has been clogging up pumps and tanks at rates never seen before. The CEC reported in a media release on 14 December 2010 that Snowy Hydro, in government mandated “environmental flows”, was releasing 4,000-5,000 ML/day into the already flooded Murray and Murrumbidgee rivers, risking increased flood damage.
HISTORICAL EVIDENCE
As bad as the current fish kill is, any simplistic talk of blaming “climate change” or “over-allocation of water rights” to irrigators ignores historical facts. The Age of 11 February 1903 reported that one Captain Anderson had recently described thousands of dead fish in the Darling River, “nearly all of them very large ones, on the surface of the river”. The Bathurst Times of 11 November 1914 reported that in the Darling River, “the fish were dying in thousands”. The Murray Pioneer of 4 June 1920reported: “The River Darling is reputed to have recently reached the lowest ebb ever witnessed by the oldest inhabitant along its banks. … [It] had the effect of killing large numbers of fish in and around Wilcannia.” In the NSW Parliament’s Hansard of 16 October 1929, member for Murray Mat Davidson referred to “the fact that an excessive number of dead fish are being carried down the Darling River”. The Barrier Miner (a Broken Hill newspaper) of 8 November 1929 reported the Darling River was very low and dead fish, some as large as 50 lb (23 kg), floated down the river from above Wilcannia (130 km north-east of Menindee) to Cal Lal (on the Murray River about 10 km from the South Australian border). “The cause of death is a mystery. One man, speaking on the matter, said: ‘Of late there have been more dead fish than water coming down’.” The Dubbo Liberal of 30 January 1951, with an article headlined “Darling River Smells of Dead Fish”, reported that “The death of so many fish will mean years must elapse before they breed sufficiently to replace losses.” Authorities were unable to explain the cause of this colossal fish kill.
Blue-green algae (cyanobacteria) are said to be the cause of the present fish kill. Warm conditions and low water levels assisted a massive bloom, but a cold front hit the region and killed the algae. Bacteria feeding on the dying algae sucked the oxygen out of the water. This killed the fish. But algal blooms in Australian rivers are not a new issue either. As the Wagga Wagga Express of 22 April 1933 reported, a conference of users of Murray River water was held at Echuca to discuss “every aspect of … pollution by algae, and its effect on the public health and the dairying industry”.
DAM SOLUTION
The Clarence River Scheme is the answer. It addresses the algae problem too, as Prof. Lance Endersbee described in a speech to the CEC on 23 November 23 1997: “There is the catchment of the Clarence River and it is a wonderful little cup in there and very steep country, high rainfall and one of the highest rainfall areas in Australia, and they get the summer rains from the monsoons coming down and they get the winter rains as well. … So I have worked out, designed a scheme for the diversion of the Clarence into the Darling. Now, as you know, there are a lot of algae in the Darling…. This would flush all the algae out of the Darling.” Prof. Endersbee went on to explain how hydroelectric generation capacity will make this scheme economic. But the economic advantages don’t stop here! Flood damage in the Clarence region, costing many millions of dollars, will be mitigated in future. Billions of dollars’ worth of new agricultural products will be generated every year. And rather than wasting $3.1 billion of taxpayers’ money to purchase water, only to flush it into swamps and out to sea, the government could allocate such funds to help improve the lives of Australians for a change!
Hi Gareth if we had to rely on the dodgy research from the CSIRO on climate change or global warming or whatever other contrived malady they serve up we would have died out years ago. Ed
Hi Brian yes the cotton farmers have to share some blame because irrigated cotton requires huge amounts of irrigation water.
However the problem could have been alleviated 20 years ago if the Federal Government had followed Bob Katter’s plan to start the Bradford Scheme to divert the river flows of larger rivers inland. Then there would no problems with massive algae blooms which kill fish and there would have been sufficient irrigation water for all farmers from Queensland to Murray Bridge. Katter is almost a lone voice and for 25 years has championed the Bradford Scheme. Unfortunately the party duopoly has ignored the wishes and well being of Australians instead signing us up to international UN sponsored treaties which have transferred our wealth to the UN and every undeveloped and many developed countries on earth.
When politicians start swinging in the breeze maybe we will start the scheme ourselves.Editor
Very educational but alot of people are now blaming the cotton framers. What is your thought on this
Fascinating, using the same obtuseness and fact free opinions that you accuse the greens of, you carry on, selecting the odd fact from possibly 10000 relevant ones to support an argument that you are having with yourself. If you lived in the broader world of observation, you would see extremes becoming more extreme and a general run of extinctions accompanying them. We pay the csiro to favour us with their intelligence and then ignore them ‘because they live in the city. I grew up in the bush, love it, as we all do. But times have changed and if you don’t change with them, you will become extinct with the frogs and bees. Start pondering your OWN observations, not repeating others opinions.
Regards
Gareth
I watch the US TV Series – Suits – it is about a top law firm in New York – their high profile & dynamic staff – from the very top down have to pee in a cup once a month to make sure that they are drug free.
I think that this is a fantastic idea –
I think that it is a measure that should be considered for the Australian Political Arena & their immediate staff.
Australian Politicians are call upon to make very serious decisions based on facts researched by their advisors & immediate personal staff.
There for I fell that it is only fair that we are certain that their judgement is not impaired by mind altering substances.
The last thing we want is drug abuse from our politicians – don’t you agree.
The Darling is the problem. Not the Murray.
The Murray always used to dry up. Right up until the Snowy River was diverted inland to provide water for irrigation.
This is a blatant attempt to distract us from the disaster of the Darling.
If we had to choose between the Greens and Senator Fraser Anning for common sense, i would choose Anning, every time. I live in fear that Labor and Greens could possibly be leading this country soon, due to the dumbing down of so many, since 1972. God help us all.
When the Greens Party started up I thought they were Intelligent to some degree ,But, as time goes by we see Utter Morons at work trying to undermine our Society in General.
Well said Peter and correct. Ed
I guess we’ll all find out after a Royal Commission.
The river systems in Australia in the last fifty years have become clogged with silt and soil from erosion along with hundreds if not thousands of fallen trees . We need to clean out every river , Lake and creek so water can flow freely and so the volumes of water in those systems can help to elevate flooding in some areas , We also need to build man more big water holding facilities ( Dams ) to insure Australia has some water security both for our country and regional areas as well as our cities