Following from this morning’s unveilling of another draft Murray Darling Basin plan the Greens Shane Rattenbury is notably miffed that there are no painful lifestyle adjustments required by the people of Canberra.
But fear not, Shane has a plan for inflicting more pain on ourselves so we may feel righteous:
“People in Canberra want to help save the Murray Darling system so I think there will be many who are surprised that we are not being asked to do our bit”, Mr Rattenbury said.
“There was debate earlier this year about how many gigalitres of water the ACT should save and what was a fair amount to ask of the ACT. But today it has been proposed that we not have any new target and I don’t think that is what anyone anticipated.
“I encourage any Canberran who wants to do their bit to write to the Murray Darling Basin Authority and let them know they are ready and willing.
[Photo by istolethetv CC BY]
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What’s Your opinion?
Greens saddened by lack self-flagellation in Murray Darling Basin plan
Ummmm, doesn’t most of Canberra’s water usage occur in domestic situations where it then goes to the LMWQCC, gets cleaned and put back in the MDB?
It is not like every single litre of water Canberra lets go doesn’t stop a couple of kms down stream in Burrinjuck to await the whim of the irrigators anyway.
justin heywood said :
If you understand science, why do you believe we should be able to extract even more water than we already do? Drawing too much water out of the river will kill the river: talk to the folks living on the Snowy River about that.
athena said :
Are the Greens responsible for Coal Seam Gas mining now? I missed that memo. Where is fracking happening in the ACT?
I suggest Rottenberry sticks his head under a slow leaking tap for a few days. Idiot.
Dear MDBA,
Following the excellent example shown by the esteemed Shane Rattenbury, I formally request that you ask the ACTW to turn off my water supply 3 days a week and send a representative round at weekends with a loud yapping dog to punish me for putting wee wee and poo in the toilet and sending it on its soiled way down to the Murray.
If required, I`m happy to be tied to a barrel and punished further. But on the condition that the Greens elect someone who not quite so boring as there current leader (my cat shot itself after listening to Mr Brown for 5 minutes last week!)
Guilty Canberran
PS. I`d happily sell my house and all its contents to help the MDBA. Please advise.
Per head of population we already use the LEAST amount of water for any urban area in the basin. And we spend the most of any urban area cleaning up the water before it goes back into the system.
What more to the tree huuggers want us to do???
If there were a monthly prize for the most disgusting image…
Wouldn’t a photo of Shane Rattenbury have been strong enough?
Says it all about the Greens really. They want the ACT Gov to spend millions of dollars of taxpayers money buying water from elsewhere so we can all feel good about ‘doing our bit.’ Meanwhile huge amounts of water have been allocated to coal seam gas for free. I thought that Shane Rattenbury was reasonable for a Green but this has really given me second thoughts. They are more about meaningless symbolism and sanctimonious grandstanding than achieving genuine environmental outcomes.
chewy14 said :
Well done – a much more couth way of expressing my own thoughts.
justin heywood said :
Excellent!
justin heywood said :
Fabulous.
“I [Rattenbury] encourage any Canberran who wants to do their bit to write to the Murray Darling Basin Authority and let them know they are ready and willing.”
What exactly should a ‘concerned’ Canberran write, Shane?
‘Dear MDBA, I am a white, middle class city dweller. I understand science, do not believe in mindless tokenism and I aspire to a reasonable standard of living.
Please punish me unmercifully.’
Yours etc.
Grail said :
We already get more than enough water through our territory and ACTEW are building a big ass pump station at Angle Crossing and a brand new dam.
Our Cap is already tiny, why would the Greens possibly want to limit us further?
chewy14 said :
Where is Canberra going to get more water from? There aren’t that many rivers up here we can dam.
Is he an imbecile?
A growing city, needs a growing water supply.
I thought our local members were meant to be advocates for our city’s interests?
Not really helping the cause there Mr Rattenbury. I’m all for reducing our impact on the environment, but pointless sacrifices are not going to achieve anything.
Let’s face it; the ACT was never going to cut back on water consumption because of the Basin Plan. If the MDBA has persisted with their original cutbacks from the guide it would have just resulted in the ACT buying up enough licences so that they could continue as before. Net result–zero.
No other urban water supply system in the Basin was asked to cutback so it was fairly ridiculous to expect Canberra to: especially in light of the fact that both sides of politics went to the last election with the promise that the SDL’s would only be met by purchasing from willing sellers (of which I think there are none in the ACT).