Community urges Howard to leave the Murray-Darling issue to the people of Austra
Water is Us | 04.06.2007 02:09 | Analysis | Ecology | Health | London | World
In just four short months after Howard announced his $10 billion water package, he is still trying to pressure Victoria to agree to the plan.
Howard still trying to pressure Victoria
The community will step up pressure on war criminal prime minister John Howard to go take a hike on the central government's proposal to take control of our precious water supply the Murray-Darling Basin.
It was reported by The Guardian on 7 March 2007 that the supply of water for nuclear plant cooling systems appears to have been one of the prime motives for the government’s proposed takeover of the Murray-Darling river system.
Pressurised water reactors require huge amounts of water, and operation of inland nuclear power plants would only be feasible in the eastern states if water was drawn from the Murray-Darling river system, which flows through the most heavily populated, and industrially most developed, Australian states. Commonwealth control of both the nuclear plants and the river system would facilitate this happening.
In just four short months after Howard announced his $10 billion water package, he is still trying to pressure Victoria to agree to the plan.
Back in March the Guardian stated that the Howard government is attempting to distract attention away from evidence of its close association with Australian Nuclear Energy Pty Ltd (ANE).
This company is promoting the establishment of a nuclear power industry, including an international nuclear waste dump, in Australia. The company is headed by Ron Walker, chairman of Fairfax Media, and by Robert Champion de Crespigny and Hugh Morgan, both former mining bosses.
Howard himself, Treasurer Peter Costello and Industry Minister Ian Mcfarlane appear to have made vigorous attempts to facilitate the company's ambitions.
Howard has invited Victorian Premier Steve Bracks to a meeting in Sydney to try to pressure him to hand over control of the Murray-Darling Basin.
Howard said, "We're not asking anything of the Victorian Government that has not already been agreed to by all other state and territory governments."
In other words if Victoria was the only sensible state to do its homework then he can triangle the community out of a proper decision making process by bullying Steve Bracks and Victoria into making the same stupid mistake.
Howard said, "I'll be asking Mr Bracks to sign up to the plan 'quickly' so that this 'critical' resource can be properly managed[?]"
Mr Bracks argues the Commonwealth is asking for too much power, but that Victoria is willing to compromise.
But please don't compromise on our precious resource Mr Bracks until you inform the rest of Australia about all the known facts and likelihood of the motives of a very sly criminal like John Howard.
He says a deal could be secured today if the Federal Government offers the right arrangement.
Bracks: "Yes it's possible, if the Prime Minister would have a simple agreement with the states, with Victoria, without a transfer of power and responsibility through legislation and a constitutional change, an inter-governmental agreement which gives the Commonwealth more power over caps and over-entitlements, of course we could agree to that," he said.
"But not simply in its current form, we've never been in a position to agree with that ... but we don't want simply a land grab from Canberra.
"Really this is a matter for the Prime Minister to back up the rhetoric and the comments with a proper agreement, which is limited.
"If that's the case, we can proceed."
Howard says his Government has taken a patient and constructive approach to resolving Victoria's concerns and he wants Mr Bracks to sign up to the plan quickly.
I see, patient, constructive and quickly? All in the same sentence as well?
The Guardian: There have been many cases of radioactive water leaking from the nuclear plants and flowing back into rivers and streams. Not only would the nuclear plants deprive Murray-Darling river communities and farms of adequate supplies of water, but they could also render the water unsafe for human use because of radioactivity.
Source:
http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200706/s1941158.htm
Source: http://tinyurl.com/28sw6m
Source: http://www.antinuclearaustralia.com/environment%20Aust.htm
Related:
Slaking profit's thirst
by Maude Barlow
As water becomes rarer, it is being treated as a costly commodity by governments.
Late last year, I had the great privilege of giving a presentation at the International Landcare Conference on the global water crisis. What I observed as well as what I have researched about Australia's water crisis disturbed me deeply and led me to write these words of warning.
With a few exceptions, your politicians are not dealing honestly with you about the water crisis looming on your horizon. The use of the word "drought" leads people to believe that this is a cyclical situation and will end. That is not my reading. Annual rainfall is declining; salinity and desertification are spreading rapidly; rivers are being drained at an unsustainable rate; aquifers are way over-pumped - groundwater extraction skyrocketed a whopping 90 per cent in the 1990s - as well as being contaminated from the 80,000 toxic dump sites under the major cities; and many surface management areas now exceed sustainable limits. Ask any farmer: Australia is running out of water.
Yet, at the very moment that massive conservation plans must be implemented and the need for public oversight of diminishing water supplies has never been greater, your governments are promoting or planning at least six ways in which your water is being wasted, exported and privatised for corporate profit.
First, obsessed with the ideology of unlimited growth, politicians refuse to question the massive export of "virtual" water from water-intensive agricultural industries such as beef (almost two-thirds of which is exported), dairy and cotton. It is simply unsustainable for the driest continent on earth to be a net exporter of virtual water - about 4000 million megalitres a year - when this water is so desperately needed at home. Not surprisingly, these water exports benefit the big agribusiness companies while bleeding water (and livelihoods) from smaller farmers growing for the domestic market.
Instead of rethinking this dangerous and short-sighted policy, your Federal Government is negotiating a free trade agreement with China which, by the way, has destroyed its own water resources in its drive for economic dominance.
Second, the big European water companies are running water and wastewater systems in many of your cities, making huge profits from your scarce water resources. Residents of Sydney and Adelaide don't need to be reminded of the problems they have experienced with Thames Water, Vivendi and Suez, but you need to know that these companies have provoked a huge reaction all over the world for their outrageous water rates, poor service and environmental transgressions. At the fourth World Water Forum in Mexico City last March, the United Nations documented the global failure of water privatisation and called on governments to provide water for their citizens as a public service, not for profit.
Third, your governments are busy handing out massive bottled water licences to companies big and small for a pittance so they can put your precious water in plastic bottles and sell it back to you at exorbitant rates, all for shareholder profits. (Why would anyone choose bottled water over Melbourne's beautiful tap water if given a choice?) There are hundreds of domestic water brands in Australia with annual domestic sales of around 600 million litres. Moreover, your precious water is now also being exported in designer bottles to the rich in other countries. A recent example is the new Coca-Cola bottling facility outside Melbourne. This is terrible public policy.
Fourth, your governments have set the stage for massive water trading, brokered by private middle operators, between cash-starved farmers and growing urban populations. The idea is to use each drop of water in the most profitable way. (For the record, this is what China did and is now experiencing a huge grain shortage, as its water was diverted to industry.) Separating water from land is a recipe for ecological disaster. The rivers and aquifers need more water, not less. And just which farmers will be encouraged by the banks to sell water instead of growing food? The small farmers producing for the domestic market, that's who. Big agribusiness exporters will still get all the water they need as long as it lasts.
Fifth, your governments are turning to big high-tech, corporate-run "solutions" to the water crisis such as desalination, perhaps powered by nuclear energy. Desalination plants are ugly, dirty, intrusive, expensive, polluting and noisy. They create greenhouse gases and release a poisonous chemical brine back into the ocean. Desalination plants are the hallmark of failure; they are what you do when you have run out of other options. As bad as things are in Australia, you have not run out of options.
Finally, there are plans afoot to move bulk water by tanker from Tasmania to the thirsty cities of the coast, operated of course, by private companies for profit. There are myriad problems, ecologically and economically, with massive bulk water transfers. By and large, nature put water where it is intended to be; mass movement of water must be carefully thought through and the decision for such a serious undertaking should never be left to those who would stand to profit from it.
There is a historic and profound shift taking place in water policy in Australia just at the time it is becoming clear that you have a severe water problem. Until recently, your water was considered a common heritage and your governments had the constitutional responsibility to manage it in your collective name. Now, your governments have decided that water is a commodity, like running shoes, and has set out to sell it to those with the deepest pockets.
This is a tragedy.
International water conservation campaigner Maude Barlow was a key speaker at last year's Landcare conference in Melbourne.
Note Dick Cheney's "former employers" Halliburton are through front Company Kellogg Brown & Root profiting from privatised water in South Australia, Haliburton funded the Ghan Train to Darwin from Alice Spring and as well as uranium will profit from the new stooge Malcolm Turnbull and co's push to move agriculture to Northern Australia and to make profit from the pipe enclosure of water systems off the Murray-Murumbidgee....
Meanwhile buy shares in Insurance Companies as they profit from Climate Change insecurity - your fear is their profit !
=============================
Federal bullyboys at it again over control of our water resources!
Water control takeover less the Victorian community. Not so gullible? Sounds like some Australian States didn't do their homework. But at least Queensland put the brakes on after 7 years and South Australia put for an independent commission to manage the war criminal John Howard whose main aim is to dish it out to corporations, no doubt! Shame Howard shame on you!
http://melbourne.indymedia.org/news/2007/02/140809.php
AUSTRALIA: The bullyboys are putting pressure on stealing our water resources
http://www.indymedia.org/it/2007/02/880795.shtml
Water Crisis, Water Privatisation and John Howard
John Howard's $10 billion 10-year plan to "save" the Murray / Darling basin and "secure" Australia's water supply, has received the tick of approval from the mass media and Her Majesty's local Opposition, although many farmers are having second thoughts about the plan. Business as usual scream the headlines, we are told 70% of water will still be used for irrigation purpose. Australia's rice and cotton growers (most large corporations) will be able to continue to pursue their plans courtesy of the taxpayer.
http://perth.indymedia.org/index.php?action=newswire&parentview=45335
Confront The Doctrines And Practices Of Economic Scarcity
Then the penny drops, literally. The earthlings are selling water, they are treating it as a commodity. For the sellers of water this means that the scarcer fresh water is the higher the price and the greater the profit. There is still CAPITALISM on Earth; a system that became redundant in most galaxies aeons ago. No wonder water is scarce here.
http://melbourne.indymedia.org/news/2006/05/112562.php
National bullies push for Murray-Darling sell-off
Leader of the Victorian Nationals bullies, Peter Ryan, has urged Victoria to sign-up to the federal government's $10 billion Murray-Darling Basin plan today.
http://melbourne.indymedia.org/news/2007/06/145846_comment.php
Would you like CYANIDE with your coffee or tea mp3
http://adelaide.indymedia.org/newswire/display/58522/index.php
CommSec 'keen to spark debate' on Aust Post sale?
In an analysis note, CommSec says the federal government could get up to $7 billion from the sale, which it could use for major projects including water security and climate change.
http://melbourne.indymedia.org/news/2007/06/145846_comment.php#145850
Nobody gains ground in latest poll
"There is a momentum now heading in the direction of Nobody because Nobody does it better, sometimes I wish someone could," he said.
http://melbourne.indymedia.org/news/2007/06/145848.php
It was reported by The Guardian on 7 March 2007 that the supply of water for nuclear plant cooling systems appears to have been one of the prime motives for the government’s proposed takeover of the Murray-Darling river system.
Pressurised water reactors require huge amounts of water, and operation of inland nuclear power plants would only be feasible in the eastern states if water was drawn from the Murray-Darling river system, which flows through the most heavily populated, and industrially most developed, Australian states. Commonwealth control of both the nuclear plants and the river system would facilitate this happening.
In just four short months after Howard announced his $10 billion water package, he is still trying to pressure Victoria to agree to the plan.
Back in March the Guardian stated that the Howard government is attempting to distract attention away from evidence of its close association with Australian Nuclear Energy Pty Ltd (ANE).
This company is promoting the establishment of a nuclear power industry, including an international nuclear waste dump, in Australia. The company is headed by Ron Walker, chairman of Fairfax Media, and by Robert Champion de Crespigny and Hugh Morgan, both former mining bosses.
Howard himself, Treasurer Peter Costello and Industry Minister Ian Mcfarlane appear to have made vigorous attempts to facilitate the company's ambitions.
Howard has invited Victorian Premier Steve Bracks to a meeting in Sydney to try to pressure him to hand over control of the Murray-Darling Basin.
Howard said, "We're not asking anything of the Victorian Government that has not already been agreed to by all other state and territory governments."
In other words if Victoria was the only sensible state to do its homework then he can triangle the community out of a proper decision making process by bullying Steve Bracks and Victoria into making the same stupid mistake.
Howard said, "I'll be asking Mr Bracks to sign up to the plan 'quickly' so that this 'critical' resource can be properly managed[?]"
Mr Bracks argues the Commonwealth is asking for too much power, but that Victoria is willing to compromise.
But please don't compromise on our precious resource Mr Bracks until you inform the rest of Australia about all the known facts and likelihood of the motives of a very sly criminal like John Howard.
He says a deal could be secured today if the Federal Government offers the right arrangement.
Bracks: "Yes it's possible, if the Prime Minister would have a simple agreement with the states, with Victoria, without a transfer of power and responsibility through legislation and a constitutional change, an inter-governmental agreement which gives the Commonwealth more power over caps and over-entitlements, of course we could agree to that," he said.
"But not simply in its current form, we've never been in a position to agree with that ... but we don't want simply a land grab from Canberra.
"Really this is a matter for the Prime Minister to back up the rhetoric and the comments with a proper agreement, which is limited.
"If that's the case, we can proceed."
Howard says his Government has taken a patient and constructive approach to resolving Victoria's concerns and he wants Mr Bracks to sign up to the plan quickly.
I see, patient, constructive and quickly? All in the same sentence as well?
The Guardian: There have been many cases of radioactive water leaking from the nuclear plants and flowing back into rivers and streams. Not only would the nuclear plants deprive Murray-Darling river communities and farms of adequate supplies of water, but they could also render the water unsafe for human use because of radioactivity.
Source:
http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200706/s1941158.htm Source:
http://tinyurl.com/28sw6m Source:
http://www.antinuclearaustralia.com/environment%20Aust.htm Related:
Slaking profit's thirst
by Maude Barlow
As water becomes rarer, it is being treated as a costly commodity by governments.
Late last year, I had the great privilege of giving a presentation at the International Landcare Conference on the global water crisis. What I observed as well as what I have researched about Australia's water crisis disturbed me deeply and led me to write these words of warning.
With a few exceptions, your politicians are not dealing honestly with you about the water crisis looming on your horizon. The use of the word "drought" leads people to believe that this is a cyclical situation and will end. That is not my reading. Annual rainfall is declining; salinity and desertification are spreading rapidly; rivers are being drained at an unsustainable rate; aquifers are way over-pumped - groundwater extraction skyrocketed a whopping 90 per cent in the 1990s - as well as being contaminated from the 80,000 toxic dump sites under the major cities; and many surface management areas now exceed sustainable limits. Ask any farmer: Australia is running out of water.
Yet, at the very moment that massive conservation plans must be implemented and the need for public oversight of diminishing water supplies has never been greater, your governments are promoting or planning at least six ways in which your water is being wasted, exported and privatised for corporate profit.
First, obsessed with the ideology of unlimited growth, politicians refuse to question the massive export of "virtual" water from water-intensive agricultural industries such as beef (almost two-thirds of which is exported), dairy and cotton. It is simply unsustainable for the driest continent on earth to be a net exporter of virtual water - about 4000 million megalitres a year - when this water is so desperately needed at home. Not surprisingly, these water exports benefit the big agribusiness companies while bleeding water (and livelihoods) from smaller farmers growing for the domestic market.
Instead of rethinking this dangerous and short-sighted policy, your Federal Government is negotiating a free trade agreement with China which, by the way, has destroyed its own water resources in its drive for economic dominance.
Second, the big European water companies are running water and wastewater systems in many of your cities, making huge profits from your scarce water resources. Residents of Sydney and Adelaide don't need to be reminded of the problems they have experienced with Thames Water, Vivendi and Suez, but you need to know that these companies have provoked a huge reaction all over the world for their outrageous water rates, poor service and environmental transgressions. At the fourth World Water Forum in Mexico City last March, the United Nations documented the global failure of water privatisation and called on governments to provide water for their citizens as a public service, not for profit.
Third, your governments are busy handing out massive bottled water licences to companies big and small for a pittance so they can put your precious water in plastic bottles and sell it back to you at exorbitant rates, all for shareholder profits. (Why would anyone choose bottled water over Melbourne's beautiful tap water if given a choice?) There are hundreds of domestic water brands in Australia with annual domestic sales of around 600 million litres. Moreover, your precious water is now also being exported in designer bottles to the rich in other countries. A recent example is the new Coca-Cola bottling facility outside Melbourne. This is terrible public policy.
Fourth, your governments have set the stage for massive water trading, brokered by private middle operators, between cash-starved farmers and growing urban populations. The idea is to use each drop of water in the most profitable way. (For the record, this is what China did and is now experiencing a huge grain shortage, as its water was diverted to industry.) Separating water from land is a recipe for ecological disaster. The rivers and aquifers need more water, not less. And just which farmers will be encouraged by the banks to sell water instead of growing food? The small farmers producing for the domestic market, that's who. Big agribusiness exporters will still get all the water they need as long as it lasts.
Fifth, your governments are turning to big high-tech, corporate-run "solutions" to the water crisis such as desalination, perhaps powered by nuclear energy. Desalination plants are ugly, dirty, intrusive, expensive, polluting and noisy. They create greenhouse gases and release a poisonous chemical brine back into the ocean. Desalination plants are the hallmark of failure; they are what you do when you have run out of other options. As bad as things are in Australia, you have not run out of options.
Finally, there are plans afoot to move bulk water by tanker from Tasmania to the thirsty cities of the coast, operated of course, by private companies for profit. There are myriad problems, ecologically and economically, with massive bulk water transfers. By and large, nature put water where it is intended to be; mass movement of water must be carefully thought through and the decision for such a serious undertaking should never be left to those who would stand to profit from it.
There is a historic and profound shift taking place in water policy in Australia just at the time it is becoming clear that you have a severe water problem. Until recently, your water was considered a common heritage and your governments had the constitutional responsibility to manage it in your collective name. Now, your governments have decided that water is a commodity, like running shoes, and has set out to sell it to those with the deepest pockets.
This is a tragedy.
International water conservation campaigner Maude Barlow was a key speaker at last year's Landcare conference in Melbourne.
Note Dick Cheney's "former employers" Halliburton are through front Company Kellogg Brown & Root profiting from privatised water in South Australia, Haliburton funded the Ghan Train to Darwin from Alice Spring and as well as uranium will profit from the new stooge Malcolm Turnbull and co's push to move agriculture to Northern Australia and to make profit from the pipe enclosure of water systems off the Murray-Murumbidgee....
Meanwhile buy shares in Insurance Companies as they profit from Climate Change insecurity - your fear is their profit !
=============================
Federal bullyboys at it again over control of our water resources!
Water control takeover less the Victorian community. Not so gullible? Sounds like some Australian States didn't do their homework. But at least Queensland put the brakes on after 7 years and South Australia put for an independent commission to manage the war criminal John Howard whose main aim is to dish it out to corporations, no doubt! Shame Howard shame on you!
http://melbourne.indymedia.org/news/2007/02/140809.php AUSTRALIA: The bullyboys are putting pressure on stealing our water resources
http://www.indymedia.org/it/2007/02/880795.shtml Water Crisis, Water Privatisation and John Howard
John Howard's $10 billion 10-year plan to "save" the Murray / Darling basin and "secure" Australia's water supply, has received the tick of approval from the mass media and Her Majesty's local Opposition, although many farmers are having second thoughts about the plan. Business as usual scream the headlines, we are told 70% of water will still be used for irrigation purpose. Australia's rice and cotton growers (most large corporations) will be able to continue to pursue their plans courtesy of the taxpayer.
http://perth.indymedia.org/index.php?action=newswire&parentview=45335 Confront The Doctrines And Practices Of Economic Scarcity
Then the penny drops, literally. The earthlings are selling water, they are treating it as a commodity. For the sellers of water this means that the scarcer fresh water is the higher the price and the greater the profit. There is still CAPITALISM on Earth; a system that became redundant in most galaxies aeons ago. No wonder water is scarce here.
http://melbourne.indymedia.org/news/2006/05/112562.php National bullies push for Murray-Darling sell-off
Leader of the Victorian Nationals bullies, Peter Ryan, has urged Victoria to sign-up to the federal government's $10 billion Murray-Darling Basin plan today.
http://melbourne.indymedia.org/news/2007/06/145846_comment.php Would you like CYANIDE with your coffee or tea mp3
http://adelaide.indymedia.org/newswire/display/58522/index.php CommSec 'keen to spark debate' on Aust Post sale?
In an analysis note, CommSec says the federal government could get up to $7 billion from the sale, which it could use for major projects including water security and climate change.
http://melbourne.indymedia.org/news/2007/06/145846_comment.php#145850 Nobody gains ground in latest poll
"There is a momentum now heading in the direction of Nobody because Nobody does it better, sometimes I wish someone could," he said.
http://melbourne.indymedia.org/news/2007/06/145848.php
Water is Us
Comments
Hide the following 5 comments
National bullies push for Murray-Darling sell-off
04.06.2007 03:48
Bullying isn't it John Howard?
===============================
Does anyone else want a gang up on Victoria? This is a clear case of bullying isn't it John Howard? I remember!!!
War criminal Howard wants crackdown on school violence?
Discipline is not achieved by cracking down but by teaching better lessons that include self awarness, empathy towards others and insight into offending behaviour. Once more Howard couldn't possibly teach those lessons because he himself lacks all of the above. That's why he asked for a 'crackdown'.
parrot Press
AUST: Howard politicising Murray-Darling plan: Bracks
04.06.2007 04:01
Howard is holding talks in Sydney to bully Victoria into securing a deal on the federal government's $10 billion water sell-off.
Victoria is the only state that has not agreed to hand control over the Murray-Darling Basin.
Howard has suggested Victoria could be refusing to sign-up to the proposal for political reasons.
But Bracks says Howard is only thinking about the federal election.
"He thinks of everything in terms of tricking it up for the election," he said.
"We're looking at it in the long term.
"This is not about politics from our point of view. It is for the prime minister.
"What I'm asking him to do is to put aside the consideration of politics and then he'll see why the farmers in Victoria are against it, he'll see why the environmentalists in Victoria are against it, he'll see why our irrigators oppose it, he'll see that we need a better plan."
Parrot Press
CommSec 'keen to spark debate' on Aust Post sale?
04.06.2007 04:02
[John Howard's brokering arm says, there should be a solid case for privatisation? More like it.]
In an analysis note, CommSec says the federal government could get up to $7 billion from the sale, which it could use for major projects including water security and climate change.
[Why not just sell the sewerage system too ? Then we can all shit on John Howard?]
CommSec says with declining volumes of traditional mail to deliver, Australia Post is now competing against private business in the areas of parcel distribution, retail and financial services.
The broker says it is keen to spark debate about the national mail service's future.
CommSec's chief economist, Craig James, says community service obligations could be maintained.
Mr James says Australia Post has diversified its business so much that letter delivery now accounts for only about a third of its profits.
"Just like in the past with Telstra, Qantas and Commonwealth Bank, the Government has decided it doesn't really need to be in those businesses, running airlines or running banks," he said.
"We don't believe that the Government has a role in being in the parcels business or even in terms of promotional mail."
[Or whatever the Investors Rights Agreements (FTA) want a role in? It goes without saying doesn't it? Just another sell off in a long list of sell off's.]
Parrot Press
AUST: Fed Govt agrees to revise Murray-Darling plan: Bracks
04.06.2007 05:59
Bracks, Howard and their water ministers have just finished talks in Sydney.
Victoria has so far refused to sign up to the deal but Bracks says he is now more hopeful a compromise can be reached.
Bracks says there will be changes to the federal government's legislation covering the water plan, and he wants to scrutinise the detail before signing up.
"It was constructive because for the first [time] and finally the Commonwealth was listening and not just talking," he said.
"That was a big breakthrough and the Commonwealth now understand Victoria's position in a much deeper way.
"As a result, the legislation that currently exists will change, and that is good news."
He says the Commonwealth should have the responsibility over caps.
"They should have the enforcement capacity to enforce the cap, they should have responsibility for water metering and they should have responsibility for a market with the ACCC [Australian Competition and Consumer Commission] scrutinising that market," he said.
"They're things which are agreed on for new legislation and obviously we need new legislation to reflect that."
Federal water Minister Malcolm Turnbull says good progress has been made but it is not a question of the Commonwealth backing down.
Parrot Press
Victorians Liberals tired of Murray-Darling power struggle: Baillieu
04.06.2007 07:37
Just another in the round of neo-liberal punches with their bullying tactics!!!
Funny how the ABC says everybody says all day???? But they only ever interviewed Lib/Lab!!!
Parrot Press