This is ridiculous .There are now only 12 weeks left for consultation on the draft Murray-Darling Basin Plan and we still don’t have a release of the public consultation dates. What is the point of a public consultation period if you don’t use that time to consult the public?

 

It’s well and truly time for the Murray Darling Basin Authority to come clean with the communities along the Basin and release the public consultation dates for 2012.

 

Whilst we have been sitting around waiting for the Labor party to get organised, Australia’s won the cricket, all our tennis players have been bundled out of the Open and the kids are back to school. But the 2.1 million people who actually live in the Basin and rely on it as their economic base, in that old fashioned desire of theirs to feed the Australian people and earn export dollars to support our nation, are no further ahead than what they were last time Parliament sat.

 

On the 28th November 2011, the Murray-Darling Basin Authority released the draft Basin Plan for public comment with a 20 week consultation period. Eight weeks since the release of the draft Plan and there are still no dates available for the 2012 meetings.

 

The people, farmers and businesses within these communities need time to make preparations for these meetings. It is only fair that the Authority releases the dates and locations of these meetings without delay.

 

The MDBA increased the consultation period by 4 weeks because of the Christmas break. By the end of this week, however, it will have been 6 weeks since their last public meeting in Deniliquin on 16 December.

 

Just before the Plan was released the MDBA said that after Australia Day it would hold meetings in Goondiwindi, Mildura, Renmark and Swan Hill and smaller meetings in Hay, Albury, Wodonga and Narrabri.

 

With Australia Day only two days away, it’s time for them to tell these communities what their plans are.