Malcolm Roberts of One Nation has been on the attack of the government’s latest piece of woke environmental disaster legislation, the Water Amendment (Restoring Our Rivers) Bill 2023. This Bill sets out to put water back into the Murray-Darling Basin, to “save the system.” Environmentalists have been lobbying hard on this one for some time, with the mantra that there is just 10 years to save the Murray, and other such nonsense. But, there will be no saving of the job losses and destruction of agriculture, for this industry is highly dependent upon this water. Roberts quotes One Nation member for Northern Victoria, Rikkie-Lee Tyrrell on the effects of water buybacks upon Victorian communities: “showing that irrigated production job losses of over 40 per cent were observed in Victorian communities due to water recovery for the environment, including in Cobram, 40 per cent of job losses; Kerang, 43 per cent of job losses; Cohuna, 43 per cent of job losses; Kyabram, 42 per cent of job losses; Tatura, 42 per cent of job losses; Rochester, 42 per cent of job losses; Pyramid Hill, 66 per cent of job losses; Boort, 66 per cent of job losses; Shepparton, 61 per cent of job losses; Swan Hill, 53 per cent of job losses; Red Cliffs, 76 per cent of job losses; and Merbein, 50 per cent of job losses.”
Roberts is right in observing that these losses mean the destruction of the rural towns: “Rural communities have a critical mass, the point below which the whole town ceases to be viable. The doctor leaves, the bank closes, the school closes, small businesses close and, suddenly, the town becomes unliveable. Many towns in Queensland and across the basin are facing that point now. Another 760 gigalitres of buybacks will kill them off. The shocking truth is this: wiping out towns and agriculture across the basin is an intended consequence of the Murray-Darling Basin Plan.”