Where is our vision?  Simon Crean offered to the Howard "New Order" in 2005 I believe a format for "Let Our Rivers flow" which caught Howard off guard and he immediately offered $10 billion dollars to fix it, even without referring to any of his misnamed "colleagues".

After all, he didn't have enough time to get his instructions from G.W. Bush.

But, during the tenure of his office, with the blessing of the woman hater Heffernan, he continued to sell off the water rights to areas which had little chance of surviving the ravages being caused by the Costello “drought”.

This was and should have been an example of the Howard “New Order” when Howard’s minders, probably from the US, were not quickly available to tell him what to do.  “Where are my Bullies?”

It should be remembered, just as the Corporation’s say, that Abbott was a devout supporter for anything his Howard mentor said or did, just as he - Abbott claims - that Julia Gillard supports the policies of Kevin Rudd.

The issue of the economy in having a huge influence on the working middle to lower class citizens, and its “gentle mention” of responsibility for the Corporations, is still paramount.

Even after the death of absolute Monarchies and the struggle for working people to have their information proven by the “powers that be” or the faceless people behind the wealth of the upper class, then I guess that economy should be the major issue between the two major parties.

“As it was in the beginning” – the people of any nation are its strength and its future – no matter what religion or style of government they may depend upon. The decisions of any government, especially of warmongers, only endangers the lifestyle and welfare of the working class and depends on their taxes to finance the war from which the elite prospers.  Seems wrong to me.

The problem with me is that my view seems to me to be fair and reasonable and yet, the media continues to “defy gravity” and delivers unbelievable distortions of fact and unreasonable interpretations of events or non-events.

I am just too old to believe that Labor’s increase in education and skills programme has been opposed by the Liberal opposition and the media. WHY?

Why does the Howard/Abbott education policy favor the rich private and Catholic schools?  Because they are wealthy? Or because they are the “chosen future” of the “Class election of 2010”?

May all Gods support the egalitarian attitude of the Labor Party of Australia in stark contrast to the racist policies of the Howard/Abbott Corporation. NE OUBLIE.

from Crikey .....

Murray-Darling Basin policies: bullshit detectors in overdrive

Andrew Gregson, CEO of the NSW Irrigators' Council, writes:

FEDERAL ELECTION 2010, MURRAY DARLING BASIN, WATER

When politicians tell you that issues are "above politics" and that they'll "end the politicking", your bullshit detector should be twirling like a low-carbon wind turbine.

The fact that the ALP and Coalition chose to release their policies for the Murray-Darling Basin in South Australia, and then riddled the rhetoric with issues pertinent to that state, tells much of the story. The story concludes with a marginal seats map, showing why the balance of the basin is effectively ignored.

Make no mistake; the future of the Murray-Darling Basin and its communities is being played out in the suburbs of Adelaide - a city that is over an hour's drive from the Murray River.

The centrepiece of the Labor policy announced on Tuesday this week was a massive extension of the purchasing program that has transferred water entitlements from productive use to environmental use via the market. The announcement was generally welcomed by irrigators as it nears a goal that they've sought for 25 years - recognition of water entitlements as a property right.

The unusual part of the policy was its lack of costing. In an election allegedly dominated by fiscal conservatism, an unfunded promise that even on the most conservative estimate stretches to billions of dollars seems at least unusual.

The genesis of the issue lies in the "independence" of the Murray-Darling Basin Authority. That body is tasked with drawing a basin plan under the auspices of the Water Act. The plan will determine how much water is to be removed, in each valley, from productive use. It was to be released in early July but was delayed until August. Citing caretaker conventions (although refusing to specify which part and currently not responding to an FoI request for the legal advice it obtained), the authority has delayed the release until after the election.

On Tuesday, authority chairman Mike Taylor told an audience of northern basin water users that some information was too important to be a "political football". Of course, Mike - you wouldn't want people knowing their future when they cast their ballot, would you?

Independent? That bullshit detector is powering a small town by now ...

The Coalition released its policy on Wednesday - in South Australia again. It contained the wonderfully crafted line "the future of the Murray-Darling should not and cannot be a choice between the environment and agriculture". The only problem with that, of course, is that it is a choice between those two. Water can be used for one of two purposes - watering agricultural production or environmental assets. The future of the Murray-Darling Basin - and communities from Dalby in Queensland to Murray Bridge in South Australia - is permanently shackled to that choice.

The path to water reform in Australia started with the National Water Initiative, an Inter-Governmental Agreement executed by all states and territories. The centrepiece was the commitment to optimise the economic, social and environmental outcomes of our water resources. That aim survives in the objects of the Water Act, but nowhere else.

The big issue that has been missed in this campaign is how we, as a nation, will determine where the line is - does the environment take absolute precedence, or can we find balance? Who will make that choice - will it solely be those in marginal seats in Adelaide, or do the rest of us get a say?

The authority has made this election a detail-free zone, leaving politics to be the only interested party - which puts South Australia in charge to the detriment of all.

pictures by gus...

pictures by Gus... These places are not often seen for what they are... One of the major foodbowl of australia...

There is water. Nonetheless the quality of the water is getting poorer as salt increases, water flow is slowed by drought and algal bloom are spurred by runoffs from fertilisers.

There are shallow ponds where water is stored. Some where the water is too salted to be used, some held back for natural reserves, including national parks.

Some of these ponds have been artificially created and have drowned many native trees... See top picture of this comment line.

These pictures have been taken while following the Murray River, before Mildura and beyond... They show a slow meandering river over an immensely flat country...

It is mischievous and incorrect to suggest the federal government is spending money on ''air'' in buying back water for the stressed rivers of the Murray-Darling Basin (''Labor's empty promise'', August 12). Because Australian rainfall is among the most variable in the world, the full entitlement of water allocated is not delivered every year. This is how all water entitlements and the market work, for irrigators and the government, and it is what they need to work with to return water to the environment.

The government's system is working. There are many places around the Murray-Darling that look healthier for the action it has already taken. (Declaration: I sit on the water recovery and environmental use stakeholder reference panel.)

This is a complex problem that needs a thousand fixes. That means buying a wide range of entitlements - water you can be sure to get nearly every year, as well as water that comes only in wet years but provides a critical boost to bird and fish breeding.

The missing piece of the puzzle is the basin plan. It will provide the map for the flow regime required to bring the Murray-Darling Basin back to health.

Arlene Harriss-Buchan Australian Conservation Foundation, Carlton (Vic)

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Your headline and story demonstrate the general misunderstanding of what the federal government has bought and what the Coalition promises to buy. Epithets such as ''phantom water'' are peddled by those who ignorantly or maliciously criticise the water allocation schemes introduced about 30 years ago after extensive consultation with water users.

Under these schemes entitlements to irrigate specified maximum areas were converted to an entitlement to a specified maximum volume of water (if it is available), and the issue of new entitlements was prohibited. The volume an irrigator can use in any one year depends on the volume of water available in that year and can be nil, as in some of the past few years.

To get access to the average (or any other) quantity of water the government had to buy entitlements which are measured as maximums, not averages. They are entitlements - not water.

Allan McLachlan Turramurra

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See pictures of the Murray River above

The floods which have destroyed farmland and property in northern Victoria have been heralded as a godsend for farmers and fishermen on the mouth of the Murray River.

While northern farmers are trying to cope with the effects of the floods, the flooding will flush out the mouth of the Murray naturally for the first time in almost a decade.

And farmers and fishermen on the mouth of the Murray say the floods have brought them back from the brink of disaster.

The mouth of the Murray River has been a series of stagnant pools and dry, cracked earth for years, but fisherman Henry Jones says recently he has seen a big change.

"We've come from almost at the point of disaster to almost back to normal. Water is in the wetlands, birds are nesting, fish are breeding. It's just unbelievable," he said.

"Not only the fish and the animals, but the people are walking around as though they've won a million dollars.

"I feel sorry for the people in Victoria that are being flooded, but as far as we are concerned down here, it is just a godsend."

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See pictures of the Murray-Darling River Basin above...

The Australian Plague Locust Commission says egg beds up to nearly 20 kilometres long have been exposed in north-western Victoria after the recent flooding.

Commission director Chris Adriaansen says heavy rain has washed away top soil and revealed the extent of egg-laying in those regions.

He says it is unlikely the water will destroy many of the eggs.

"The majority of those eggs, even those that are just below the surface are still likely to survive and hatch, but progressively we will see some of those eggs hatching a little earlier than would normally be expected because of that exposure to the accumulation of heat," he said.

Yesterday a three-kilometre long bed of locust eggs was discovered west of Nyngan in central New South Wales.

New South Wales Ranger Lisa Thomas said the eggs were expected to start hatching quickly as the weather warmed up.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2010/09/10/3007957.htm?section=justin

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see picture of the Murray-Darling basin system above and the one below:

picture by Gus — irrigation