Water Minister Penny Wong must come clean and declare whether or not she has been briefed on the contents of the Murray Darling Basin report that’s been buried until after the Federal election.
Shadow Minister for Regional Development, Infrastructure and Water Barnaby Joyce said Labor’s dishonesty had been exposed by its inflated claims about the impact of its water buybacks, raising the immediate question as to what else Labor was trying to deceive the voting public about.
Penny Wong was put in a highly embarrassing situation on ABC Radio this morning. When asked just how much of the 900 billion litres of water that she and Julia Gillard claimed had actually been returned to the Murray she never actually told us what the answer was.
Penny Wong first of all tried to evade the question completely and then gave an evasive answer telling how much should be returned on average (not 900 but between 600 and 700 billion litres). Penny Wong never answered the question on what ‘actually’ had been returned. It appears that what actually has been returned is between 100 and 200 billion litres of water.
People within the Murray Darling Basin are living in suspended uncertainty because Labor won’t be upfront with them,” Senator Joyce said.
Those families, those workers, those business people and their communities deserve to know what Labor has in store for them if they’re re-elected. And the voting public deserves to know whether Labor is telling them the truth about the impact of its water policy or not.
On today’s revelations, and to put it mildly, people could be forgiven for having their doubts.
The Australian people deserve better than to find out the truth is less than 25 % of what was claimed. It is peculiar when we are getting to the position when we can only believe about a quarter of what our government tells us. Cynicism becomes immediate and people stop believing any thing you say and all promises are empty vessels.
We now find that she has made a promise to Broken Hill about their water supply, but after listening to Cr Tom Kennedy from the Broken Hill Shire Council on ABC radio this morning, you have to ask what else Ms Wong is being evasive about or in this case completely misrepresenting.
Penny Wong has made a statement that the water for Broken Hill will come from an aquifer that she has found. Cr Tom Kennedy of that same town says that this is news to everyone and from what they know the aquifer that has the capacity to supply Broken Hill does not even exist.
Cr Kennedy said that the Government had spent $ 20 million looking for but not finding an aquifer, maybe this is ‘Aquifer Watch’, and $60 million on consultants. They have also been told that it may cost up to 20 times what they pay now for domestic water supplies.
Why has Ms Wong not corrected the record for the water she claims to have returned to the Murray? Why did Ms Wong authorise the purchase of Toorale Station without inspecting it or discovering that its water didn’t actually flow into the Darling but onto a flood plain? Why did she pay in excess $300 million for Twynam’s water without realising that a lot of the water purchased is only there in a perfect season?
Why has she not been able to organise herself to get the basin plan out before the election? Why did Ms Wong claim she had discovered water when all she has discovered is an abundance of consultants for Broken Hill? It appears that the drilling will have the people of Broken Hill showering in consultants.
Ms Wong’s approach typifies the Labor Party approach; wondrous promises, no delivery and massive costs leading to a huge debt. We ask Minister Wong to be up front and fair dinkum and come clean with the facts. Like most of Labor Promises her legacy suggests that the Labor party lacks the capacity to competently administer this portfolio.