Not that we haven’t been busy – so far nearly 2000 people have sent in email or postcard submissions with our key asks for a successful Basin Plan, far outnumbering submissions from any other source. Over 100 people came to our forum at the Sustainable Living Festival in February to hear from Professor Richard Kingsford on what’s at risk in the Basin and the Premier of South Australia about how important a healthy river is for his state. John Pettigrew from the Environmental Farmers Network spoke of why a strong Plan is of benefit to farmers and Don Henry of ACF finished up with a rousing call to action. A great event!
We’ve also been to Shepparton and Mildura where our regional forums explored what the Basin Plan actually means for the rivers of northern Victoria. You can check out our assessment here. We discovered that the reactions of people to the Basin Plan are much more varied than you would think from reading the Weekly Times and that there is strong support for action to improve river health. People who came to the forums had the opportunity to hear from Dr Ben Gawne of the Murray-Darling Freshwater Research Centre on key threats to river systems. You can download his presentation here and what I had to say here
We’ve been busy in Canberra too – together with 18 other groups in the Lifeblood Alliance, we have written to the MDBA and the federal Water Minister asking for new work to improve the Basin Plan. This week we will hear the MDBA’s response and next week it’s the Water Minister’s turn. And our friends in South Australia have really been turning up the heat – check out the Adelaide Advertiser’s campaign here
So please join the crowd and put in a submission to the MDBA before Monday, 16 April.
There’s plenty of material to help here and if you’re stuck or have something you want to discuss give me a call on 9341 8106.
The Murray says thanks!