Mrs Beer, from Yea, said we needed to learn from mistakes and use water to improve our national prosperity and food security.
“Our supermarket shelves are being stripped of vital products and we are struggling to keep up with demand,” she said.
“If Australia wants genuine food security into the future we have to repair the damage which has been caused to food producing regions and re-prioritise our needs.”
She said a starting point would be the Federal Government announcing the suspension of all ongoing reviews, reports and inquiries relating to the Murray-Darling Basin Plan.
“The Murray-Darling Basin Authority continues to forge ahead with all aspects of the basin plan, despite the issues we are facing from COVID-19.
“All public meetings have been cancelled, so the promised consultation cannot take place.
“The suspension of effective consultation should be enough to force suspension of the basin plan.”
Mrs Beer said it was disappointing that neither the Federal Government nor the Murray-Darling Basin Authority had expressed any concern that stipulated face-to-face consultation could not occur, which was a sad reflection on the poor community involvement that had dogged the plan throughout its development and implementation.
“In southern NSW there were supposed to be workshops to prepare the NSW Water Resource Plans, but they became teleconferences,” she said.
“This is completely unacceptable as the necessary in-depth discussion and interaction cannot possibly take place via telephone.”
