None of the water ministers in more than a decade of the plan has had much understanding of this complex issue. It is their department and its bureaucracy that make the decisions and direct whichever minister has been allocated the portfolio.
The only direction from the minister is around political imperatives, which involve not upsetting those in city or South Australian marginal seats.
As such, we need to understand that failings of the basin plan are only partly the fault of various water ministers, and responsibility for this social and economic disaster should instead be directed to unelected people behind the scenes.
The current Federal Water Minister Tanya Plibersek appears to have minimal understanding of water policy and management complexities and has not done enough to improve her knowledge.
Despite numerous requests she has never even bothered to visit areas that are most affected, such as the Southern Riverina.
However, when there is a change of government or Cabinet reshuffle she will move on but little will change; the bureaucrats will just be left to indoctrinate a new minister.
And when we have the inevitable realisation that the basin plan was poorly modelled and poorly delivered, no-one will be held accountable.
Stephen Ball, Mayrung, NSW
Still waiting for flood gauges and mitigation
After countless hours spent at water meetings, where governments and bureaucrats debate the need for, and location of, telemetry streamflow and rainfall gauges, we seem to be no further advanced in seeing these critical gauges being installed and operable.
Once again the upper reaches of the Goulburn catchment is being impacted by major floods.
Once again landowners have resorted to phoning neighbours up and down the Goulburn and its tributaries to find out how much water is coming down and how quickly.
In this case extremely quickly, and with massive force, just as occurred in the October 2022 flood.
These gauges, we have been told, are mainly for the benefit of river operators, but they are essential information infrastructure that is so critically important to landowners on the floodplains who need instant access to river heights and flows during fast rising flood periods.
The flood in the Yea River catchment on January 8 and 9, 2024, has been a larger flood than the October 2022 flood, but still more than 47 per cent of the Yea River catchment and 50 per cent of the upper Goulburn catchment have no operable real-time gauging.
Although promised we still have no accessible Molesworth streamflow gauge, no Yea gauge, no Murrindindi gauge.
As landowners we have given information to the 2011 flood inquiry, the 2016 flood inquiry and now the 2022 flood inquiry.
Just how long do we have to wait till governments actually take heed of recommendations by these inquiries and decide to show some duty of care to constituents?
Because in all these inquiries, if anyone cares to look, recommendations were made to install real-time streamflow gauges. Thirteen years later we are still waiting.
When we are struggling with increasingly intense rainfall events and thunderstorm cells, a comprehensive system of telemetry streamflow and rainfall gauges are essential.
When we have Murray-Darling Basin Plan policies that have completely changed usage and storage of water in our upstream weirs, yet storage filling curve policies and flood mitigation policies are left unchanged, people in communities and towns all the way down the Goulburn system are left in a vulnerable and life-threatening situation.
Currently there is very little water being called from Eildon for irrigation or environmental purposes due to the wet conditions this autumn and summer, so Eildon Weir is sitting at 99.6 per cent full, just waiting for the next intense rainfall event to descend.
For everyone living along the floodplains this is like living with a time bomb.
Water storage policies must incorporate allowing sufficient air space to provide for flood mitigation ensuring the safety of downstream communities.
Everyone was extremely lucky that in this last flood, the rain fell mainly over the tributary catchments.
If the upper Goulburn catchment had received such an intense event, Seymour and Shepparton would have been inundated to record levels.
The Victorian Government and Water Minister Harriet Shing must take action immediately on both the lack of gauging and flood mitigation policies.
We have climate change producing more intense weather events. Failure of the government to adapt and take action shows complete negligence towards its people.
Jan Beer, Yea
Labor has your Christmas ham in its sights
The Victorian pork industry needs your urgent help to save its bacon.
Premier Jacinta Allan is coming after a sector that contributes $488 million to the Victorian economy and supports almost 2700 full-time jobs.
Last week, the committee holding the looming Inquiry into Pig Welfare in Victoria was inundated by almost 500 powerful submissions entered on our website at www.saveourbacon.com.au
There is so much support for the industry and although submissions officially closed last Friday [January 12], late submissions are just as important and I urge you to go to the website.
The industry, so strong throughout regional Victoria, is under threat by ideological inner-city animal extremists.
The inquiry is a sham and an insult to an industry that already has the support of independent, audited quality assurance programs.
The Nationals are making it easy to provide submissions simply by following the link at the www.saveourbacon.com.au website.
We are in the midst of a cost-of-living crisis, yet it is clear Labor has your Christmas ham in its sights, along with your favourite pork dumplings.
This dark cloud over the pork industry is both sad and disturbing — but not surprising given the botched closure of the native timber industry in this state.
We can’t allow the pork industry to suffer the same fate.
Emma Kealy, Victorian Nationals deputy leader
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