“The water debate has now advanced to the purchase of water licences of property to be “returned” to national parks. Well stand by Adelaide for the release of 14000 mega litres from Toorale, I hope the people of the lower Murray have all raised the good furniture and pulled up the carpets and are heading for the hills.

“14,000 mega litres is 14 gigalitres and about 1000 km away they need an extra 1000 gigalitres, so if you took the water down in little plastic bottles, as opposed to how it will travel in an open air channel surrounded by summer heat, trees, weeds and aquifers, then you would still be 986 gigalitres short.

“Not only are you 986 gigalitres short once this lot of water is released, but you’ll be 980 gigalitres short every year as the extra amount of water in the system per annum will be approximately 20 gigalitres.

“This purchase will be a flop. The effect of the release will quickly be absorbed prior to reaching South Australia. But the protagonist in the debate must be held to account as they hold this type of action as the miraculous silver bullet. Well the bullet will be to the surrounding economy as this short sighted benevolence withdraws the wealth creating resource and puts in its place a pig hunter’s paradise otherwise known as a National Park.

“Of course irrigation properties can be purchased but the effect of that purchase goes far beyond the farm gate and even that could be tolerated if there really was a discernable difference to the nub of the problem in the lower lakes and Adelaide.

“For every dollar of income that is lost directly from irrigation another 4 to 6 dollars are lost to the local economy, so the Aboriginal people of Bourke can rest easy that the extent of our genuine approach to the apology to the indigenous people of this nation can well and truly be reflected in that we are now intent on destroying their local economy and leaving them in destitution.

“Alternatively, zonal taxation could encourage industry and employment to those areas decimated by the loss of the wealth generated by the water, but in the narrow casting of these decisions to cherry pick water licences the Labor Government has ignored remedies to these wider ramifications.

“Now I know that no one should knock an idea unless you have a better one but the only solution is to move water from a catchment system where it is in abundance to the area where the water is needed. The most efficient way to move water is via a mechanism that does not lose water via evaporation or absorption. That is you will be moving it by pipe from the gulf or the north west, a massive engineering project but similar projects have been completed in Libya where US $14 billion was spent to move 2 gigs per day 1,200 km.


Ends