Labor and the Greens have today again shown they’re not serious about listening to Murray-Darling Basin communities about the proposed Basin Plan, Coalition Basin spokesman Simon Birmingham said today.
Senator Birmingham today attended today’s Murray-Darling Basin Authority public meeting in Murray Bridge, as did fellow federal Liberal MPs Patrick Secker, Jamie Briggs and Sean Edwards and state parliamentary colleagues Adrian Pederick and Tim Whetstone.
No Labor or Greens MPs, federal or state, attended today’s meeting.
“We’ve known since last week’s release of the draft Basin Plan that the Greens don’t intend to be part of the process of finding a balanced Plan meeting the economic and environmental needs of the River and Basin communities,” Senator Birmingham said.
“Today, Labor’s embarrassing ‘no show’ demonstrated what little importance it places on community feedback here in South Australia none.
“You can usually find a Labor MP with a cheap line wherever there’s a camera but they are clearly unwilling to do the hard yards of turning up and listening to what the community has to say.
“Federal Labor has mismanaged the Basin reform process at every step, including through failing to invest in water saving infrastructure or to develop a Plan of how water is to be recovered.
“State Labor has threatened to derail the process through new Premier Jay Weatherill’s rampant parochialism being matched by upstream states talking about walking away from it altogether.
“If Labor or the Greens were serious about Basin reform, they’d be listening to Basin communities through meetings such as today’s in Murray Bridge.
“It is just embarrassing that not one Labor or Greens MP could even be bothered turning up today.”