Approved Misinformation

If I’d asked God for an example of the dangers of any government becoming the sole arbiter on truth, the Albanese Government’s Basin Plan video is it! It’s as if the clouds parted, the trumpets sounded and descending forth from the heavens was this perfect bite-sized multi-million-dollar propaganda campaign of approved misinformation.

Your average metropolitan resident may be swayed by the emotive scenery and bold claims that paint a very bleak picture of the state of the Basin and help validate Tanya Plibersek’s decision to change legislation to remove protection for communities, their industries and towns from more blanket water buybacks that by countless social and economic reports rip the prosperity and viability out of many rural communities. 

Let’s look at some of the claims and obfuscations of the issues.

Advert: “Water is being overused”

Yet, the Murray-Darling Basin Authority’s water take report clearly shows that extractions have steadily declined from just over the 12,000GL (gigalitres) removed basin wide in 1997 (diversion limit close to 14,000GL) and have tracked below diversion limits (the amount of water allowed to be extracted, not total basin inflows!), even with the diversion limit decrease. 2021/22 extractions 8,000GL (new lower diversion limit around 11,000GL). Many valleys are actually falling below their approved limit on access to water, 79 per cent for the southern basin in 2021/22 (surface water, all forms). Maybe Ms Plibersek could explain the huge volumes of carryover listed in the MDBA  2021-22 Annual Water Take Report of both E water and productive water with all this overuse?  

Advert: “The next drought is just around the corner, we have to make sure there’s enough water, otherwise the rivers will run dry.”

No-one indeed wants to see the rivers dry in a drought. How did the Murray remain flowing during the Millennium Drought even before the federal government stepped in and removed water from the productive pool? The government now holds more than 3,365GL of held environmental water (HEW) basin-wide, but wants much more. Bear in mind HEW isn’t the only water that runs the rivers; there are numerous classes or buckets of water that provide this function: unregulated flows, conveyance water, dilution flows, and so on. 

Advert: “If we don’t act, it could threaten our plants and animals, our food supply (continues)”

What if the action you take affects our plants and animals and our food supplies? The proposed action is to remove more water from the privately owned environment – farms that are home to millions of plants and animals and land that produces our food. Show me one environmental impact study on any government water buyback from our regions that are home to countless species and many endangered creatures that call this land home. Maybe dig out the countless social and economic reports that lay bare the impact to our food production and farmers. 

Examples abound of the contradictions in the Feds’ push to “save the basin”, much like the Living Murray icon site, the Murray River, and its current path of destruction through mismanagement and erosion. 

The failings and problems of the current path never see a mention in the government sponsored propaganda. 

The proposed mis- and disinformation bill requires your attention, as it spells out that the only false, misleading or deceptive information allowed will be that of all content produced by or authorised by commonwealth, state or territory governments or bodies recognised by the Commonwealth, a state or territory as an accreditor of educational institutions.

The lunatics are not only running the asylum; they’re taxing you to death to do it.