Time to pay back the Snowy

The question is whether the Halliburton group, or any other corporation, has at any time attempted to buy Australia's water and sequester that water for its private use, especially so during the drought and whether some of the big corporate water buyers upstream will have caps placed on their water use.

Water for agriculture - for the national food bowl - does not equate to water for corporate profits and especially when those profits do not stay in Australia. Water for sustainable agriculture - for a sustainable Australian population - is entirely separate to corporate water, for MIS or for any businesses that indeed enjoys lobbying power that neither the rivers, wetlands or estuaries, domestic users, or small family farms could ever imagine.

Businesses that donate to political parties should not have any influence over water allocations and that includes MIS or other politically aligned or influential agribusinesses.

People may be forgiving but they are not stupid. We own the water.

Scrutiny and auditing of public water is imperative and this must include state theft of public water for “sales”. Water is public property yet the state sees fit to appropriate and sell that water.

Now, with 14 water areas in NSW alone it is likely the NSW Government will attempt to corporatise and sell off municipal or community-owned water utilities to companies such as Veolia who, potentially, will own both the utility and water as they will undoubtedly achieve in Bangladesh.

As far as the pivotal Snowy Scheme is concerned, Snowy Hydro exists in the grey world hiding between the ASIC monitored real business sector and politically accountable government.

The Snowy Scheme would better serve its essential role as a Statutory Authority, similar to the proposed MDB Statutory Authority, with the appointment of a Public Water Administrator - free from political or pecuniary interests - to manage and apportion precious water resources including for environmental flows to the Snowy River.

It is time to pay back the Snowy River. It is time for the Snowy Scheme to be managed judiciously in the public interest - not in the interest of expanding an energy empire and “insurance derivatives business” as is the current perception of the Snowy CEO and Government collaborators.

It is time to allow the Snowy River to flow and this must mean powerful flushing flows this coming spring: flows that will deliver life all the way to the mouth of the great river. It is time also for flushing flows along the course of the Murray River.

This spring, let us demonstrate that indeed, we have both understanding and respect for natural systems and let the rivers run for once, wild and free as far as possible with extraction only for domestic use, for stock and for essential plantings to feed the nation. May the Federal Minister for Water stand up to corporate interests and place a definite cap on extraction of water from publicly owned rivers, wetlands and estuaries.

From the source - from the Snowy Mountains - the great rivers the Snowy and Murray have a destiny that must be fulfilled without undue interference from the profiteers and privateers, whether government or corporate interests.