The eventual release of the MDBA plan at 4.00pm on a Friday afternoon demonstrated the political undertones of such.
If agriculturalists, in this case predominately irrigators, had any illusion as to their importance to society this should surely set the record straight. As the CEO of the MDBA stated environment is mentioned in the Water Act over 250 times, and Agriculture 4 times.
What I as an irrigator find hard to understand is how only 3 years ago 1500GL was in the upperband of estimated requirements to "save" the rivers, and now 4000GL is a compromise, with 7600GL being optimum. Especially since there has been no chance to accumulate 1500GL of water and see it's improvement, at whatever that level would be.
Some have been critical of emotion displayed by farmers and their communities and can't help wondering if it's because they don't understand the sense of community that small towns and disticts evoke. This IS a big deal for rural towns who depend on irrigated agriculture. It will be the final push for some and will mean friends and even family members moving away.
You'll have to forgive raw emotion toward a plan yet to spell out the rationale behind the figures, and indisputably wrong on figures already published. These are real people and the "precautionary principle" appling to the basin plan should apply to them too.
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