Mrs Dalton is still pushing for the NSW Government to take a stand against the Federal Government’s plans to remove more productive water from regions under the Murray-Darling Basin Plan.
Its new rounds of water buybacks are considered to be poorly thought out and rushed, and are widely believed to be placing undue pressure on already stressed farmers.
A petition led by NSW Member for Murray Helen Dalton seeks to protect regional and remote communities from the potential impacts of Commonwealth water buybacks.
The petition needs 10,000 signatures, and Ms Dalton said she’s got just over 5000 so far.
It calls on the NSW Government to ensure that no water transfers occur without a detailed and transparent report into the expected impact of any Commonwealth buybacks, including the potential economic, social, cultural, and environmental consequences of water resources being diverted away from local communities.
“If we can get 10,000 signatures we can bring the debate to Parliament, and that’s what I want to do.
“What the Federal Government is doing with buybacks is indefensible.
“It just rips the heart out of communities, and we know that’s true because we saw what it did last time.
“I don’t know what (Federal Water Minister) Tanya Plibersek is thinking, and again I call on her to get out here (to Deniliquin and the wider New South Wales Murray) to have a look.
“Something like 85 per cent of the state’s food comes from our area.
“We don’t want to have to import food and with the price of food in supermarkets already, all this policy does is bite the hand that feeds it.”
Petition sheets are available at several locations around the electorate, including the Pastoral Times office and Ms Dalton’s Deniliquin electorate office, or can be signed online at www.parliament.nsw.gov.au/la/Pages/ePetition-details.aspx?q=brmrrxsNmdLpvOZ5DwKing.
