What is that all about? Let me explain, the flag itself was used by gold miners in Ballarat in 1854 who were tired of being charged for the right to prospect for gold by the government.
The Eureka Rebellion was born, and the miners voted to “fight to defend our rights and liberties under the Eureka Flag.
Not dissimilar to what is going on now in the Murray Darling Basin where irrigators are required to pay for the right to irrigate and not get the water they pay for, water has become the new gold.
Scott Morrison and Michael McCormick have demonstrated abject ignorance to the quiet devastation being imposed over the past decade on particularly the southern riverina irrigation communities. Their total lack of leadership in this matter despite numerous fruitless meetings.
The Water Act of 2007 allowed dissociation from land and has allowed water to be traded as a commodity for investors to hold food and fibre production to ransom.
A basic human need now largely being controlled by corporate and international investors and the Commonwealth Environmental Water Holder, who correct their own homework of mismanagement.
On top of un-monitored floodplains harvesting, no transparency of water ownership, accusations of government insider trading, all the while continuing to spend billions of taxpayers money with no regard for accountability.
Well I have had enough and I am not going to be paying my water rates nor my Gannawarra Shire rates as my personal stand on this issue, however I will be requesting Goulburn Murray Water and the Gannawarra council to take a public stand on this matter to call for a Federal Royal Commission into the Murray Darling Basin Plan and the management of the MDB Authority “on just terms”.
If you feel strongly enough about the future of your community I would invite you too to consider withholding your payments and fly a Eureka flag in support of the injustice this MDBP has imposed on our community.
Doug Fehring, Cohuna
14°C