Email Minister Barnaby Joyce, Shadow Minister Tony Burke and Senators Nick Xenophon, Anne Ruston and Sarah Hanson-Young
The scale of this alleged water heist is unfathomable.
ABC’s Four Corners revealed allegations about what looks like the biggest and most outrageous river water theft in Australia’s history. If allegations raised are accurate, several rogue irrigators in NSW are stealing billions of litres of water from the Murray-Darling Basin.
And despite clear evidence of illegal activity, the allegations are that people at the highest levels of the NSW government appear to have done nothing to stop them.
Will you send a quick email to demand an immediate and thorough Senate Inquiry into these revelations of greed, mismanagement and plunder?
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The evidence ACF, the Environment Defenders Office and Four Corners have unearthed over the past year is alarming. Illegal pumps so powerful, they make the river flow upstream. Massive hidden dams. Top government officials apparently shutting down active investigations, leaking confidential documents and helping irrigators find loopholes to abuse the rules. And more.
Meanwhile, the river’s fragile ecosystem and communities across the basin are desperate for a proper drink.
Winding across five states, the Murray-Darling Basin nourishes ancient river red gums. Its creeks and wetlands are nurseries for fish, frogs and turtles. They’re the last refuge for many threatened species and a place for birds migrating from as far away as the Arctic to rest.
And they sustain 20,000 farms, towns, cities and millions of people.
The allegations in the Four Corners report appear to indicate that while this handful of giant rogue irrigators appear to get richer and richer stealing river water, towns like Broken Hill have nearly run dry.
There must be an independent investigation and consequences.
Header photo: creative commons licensed (BY 2.0) flickr photo by Chris Fithall