In coming to a renewed coalition agreement with the National party, new prime minister Malcolm Turnbull has reportedly agreed that matters relating to water will move into the agriculture portfolio, although the exact details of what has been agreed are yet to be announced.

What we have seen is a happy agriculture minister in Barnaby Joyce, while irrigators and environmental interests have taken predictably opposing positions on the deal, illustrating a lack of a shared view on water use among these groups, at least in relation to the Murray-Darling Basin. 

What more can be said about the reported proposal at this point?

read more:

http://theconversation.com/giving-water-policy-to-the-nationals-could-tr...

The Murray-Darling Basin Authority (MDBA) will wait 10 years before reviewing the basin plan's impact on southern communities.

This is despite the findings of a review into the basin's northern communities, which found they had lost too much water. 

The northern review found the basin plan had a detrimental impact on rural communities in northern NSW and southern Queensland. It found that giving back 70 gigalitres of water to irrigators could achieve the same environmental benefit.

But MDBA chief executive Phillip Glyde said there would not be a similar study in the south, until 2022, the 10-year anniversary of the plan's implementation.

"The next period for review is every 10 years and so the review of the whole of the system won't be happening until then," Mr Glyde said.

Instead, he said government proposals to save up to 650 gigalitres were due by the end of the year, reducing the need to take water out of production.

read more:

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-01-25/10-year-wait-for-murray-darling-ba...

Are Barnaby Joyce's extravagant pork-barrelling and outrageous ravings signs of a zombie carp attack?” Jim Pembroke considers.

IT REALLY IS TIME for an article that asks the question: Is Barnaby Joyce's pork-barrel hoarding and half baked rants a sign of the end times?

Only a doomsday prepper would load up an entire government agency and “bugout” to Armidale. Particularly, since the long awaited cost-benefit analysis showed no economic reason for the move. It could be blatant pork-barrelling but a conspiratorial mind might think Barnaby is preparing for a zombie carp pandemic or its equivalent — Barnaby Joyce, the doomsday prepper.

The shit has hit the fan (SHTF) for 175 public servants forced into survival bugout vehicles and running the gauntlet to Armidale. For them, it's not so much mayhem in the streets but upheaval in the house — forced to pack up their families and head into Barnaby's carp wasteland.

And it's not just the public service. On Australia Day, he implored thousands of questioning Aussies to find a rock and crawl under it — just being rude, or code for "get out of Dodge, I have an underground bunker in Tamworth".

read more:

https://independentaustralia.net/politics/politics-display/barnaby-joyce...

Barnaby Joyce tilted the Murray-Darling Basin Authority towards irrigation interests over the environment when he was agriculture minister, the former head of the National Farmers’ Federation has claimed.

Mal Peters, a highly regarded figure in rural politics who chaired the authority’s own advisory committee on the northern basin, says the authority, post-Joyce, remains “extremely reticent to make tough decisions”.

And he warns the proposed changes to the plan in the northern basin – a 70-gigalitre cut to the environmental water recovery target that his advisory committee did not support – will mean the Darling River will run dry one year in three.

“Without protection of environmental water and ensuring environmental outcomes, I struggle to see the point of the plan,” he says in a written witness statement to the South Australian royal commission into the Murray-Darling basin plan.

 

Read more:

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2018/aug/17/barnaby-joyce-acc...

 

Read from top...

....

The Central Marsh, pictured above, used to be full of water and life. Now, many locals have been forced to migrate from the cracked, bare earth that surrounds their villages. This time, climate change, poor water management, and dams further upstream are among the culprits.

Forget the Palestinian issue. That's a joke compared to what's coming. Water is life!
Mr Alwash has led reflooding efforts in the marshlands, and he warns that without proper management, the situation will present "the next crisis" for Iraq after the fall of the Islamic State.

The marshes were completely dried almost 30 years ago by Saddam because they were a natural haven for political resistance. It is our Sherwood Forest [Robin Hood] — it is where rebels went to hide and Saddam was afraid the opposition would be used by the West to undermine his rule. As such, he went about depriving the marshes of their source of life, building thousands of kilometres of embankments to hold the waters of the Euphrates away from the marshes."
Azzam Alwash


The drying caused the temperature of the region to increase by 5 per cent, dust storms increased, birds migrated to other countries, and fish died off. The marshlands previously supplied around half of the fish consumed in Iraq.

By the fall of Saddam in 2003 after the launch of the Iraq war, refugees of the area began to return to break down the embankments, but by this point, dam projects up north in Turkey were reducing the amount of water reaching the area. 

The biodiversity of the marshes are driven by the natural flood pulses of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers that deliver 60 per cent of their water in the spring — the dam systems stopped those pulses.
Read more:http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-08-18/iraqi-marshlands-drying-out-again/10096074


Just replace Saddam Hussein with LNP (Malcolm Furball, Barnum Joyce and whoever is on that list of clowns), replace Iraqi marshes with the Australian wetlands — replace the Tigris and Euphrates with The darling and Murray Rivers — and you have the same nasty caper…
Meanwhile:

The poem that's gone viral after NSW farmer Joanna Collett posted it on the Prime Minister's facebook page …

G’day Mr Turnbull, I trust that you are fine,
Sorry to be bothering you, but there’s something on my mind
I listened to a bloke last week; he had a bit to say
You lot may have heard of him? He delivers all that hay?

He spoke of countless hours and the distances they drive
Feeding starving stock, to keep bush hopes alive
They do not get assistance from your tax funded hat
They do it on their own, all off their own bat

I’m not politically minded and I don’t have any clout
And I know you’ve done a tour, to learn about the drought
But there’s just some burning questions, that have left us feeling beat
Why did we fund a foreign land, to learn to cut up meat?

And what about those soccer boys, who went and got all lost
You pulled out all the bloody stops, plain just showing off
You’ve bigger problems here at home, there’s drought up to our necks
So what does your mob go and do ? Give them big fat cheques!

Don’t they have a government to deal with all this stuff?
Why should it be up to us, what’s with all your fuss?
Should we not be reigning in and look after our own
Have you never heard the phrase “charity starts at home”?

I realise there’s many things, that need an allocation
And I also can appreciate, complex trade relations
I’m not sure if you realise, but if our stock all die,
There won’t be any trade you see, your deals will all run dry

As a rule we’re not a whinging lot, our requests are but a few
Most of us who work the land, are tested, tried and true
We respect that we are guardians, and sustain it for the kids
But I often have to wonder, what future will it bring?

I guess all that I’m wondering, is “where’s the Aussie aid”?
Wrapped up in a swag of tape, only then to be repaid ! 
There’s Aussie blokes and chicks out there, putting you to shame
Helping fellow Australians, in their time of pain

I’m just a simple farmer, grazier, wife and mum
And even though we’re feeding stock, we’re better off than some
I’ve never had to shoot a cow, who could no longer stand
But many have before me, and I pray, I’m not dealt that hand

So will you take another look; admit that we’re in strife ?
And do more than bloody empathise, before another farmer takes their life ?
I’d like to think you’ll do what’s right and put Australia first
And help your own damn country, before this drought gets any worse

Joanna Collett 
Wee Waa NSW

 

 

Read from top.

 

And yes, read: 

wearing a beige cardigan on a hot day at the beach because mum said so...

Federal Nationals are urging their party to shift to the right following the NSW election in order to head off a looming challenge from the Shooters, Fishers and Farmers Party after its barnstorming results in the bush.

Former leader Barnaby Joyce said the Shooters' strong showing underlined the need for a government-backed coal-fired power plant and a plan - such as the long-mooted Bradfield Scheme - to pump more water to the country's interior.

In a barely-disguised rebuke of Deputy Prime Minister Michael McCormack's leadership, Mr Joyce said voters were "rightly angry" and the National Party had to demonstrate it took their concerns seriously.

"They believe too much water has gone to the environment and it has destroyed their town," he told The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age.

 

Read more:

https://www.smh.com.au/nsw-election-2019/barnaby-joyce-says-nationals-mu...

Barnaby's water policy worked a treat in killing fishes. Read from top. See  also: 

fish kills...