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Okay.. I'm gonna wade into this (pardon the pun)...
Firstly, I am in no way a defender of cotton farms but, I watched an interesting snippet on Dateline the other night &, the whole issue is far more complex than any one side wants to acknowledge.
Okay, what I learned...
Cotton farming in Australia is not actually as water intensive as you might think.. despite some of the images that are bandied about on social media, particularly in relation to Cobbie station.. In fact, Australian cotton farming is the envy of the world (true, I kid you not) due to the way in which the farms here have reduced water useage, yet increased yield.
Fact; many of the crops grown in Australia are far more water intensive than cotton but, I don't disagree with the fact that it seems an interesting choice of crop to grow in a region that isn't renowned for consistent rainfall & water supply.
What else I have learned is that the biggest issues of all are:
(a) Water theft - people (and not just corporate farms) taking considerably more than their allocated amount.
(b) Lack of monitoring & enforcement - multiple farmers in the M/D basin area were demonstrating their latest 'sealed & locked' irrigation monitoring equipment as mandated by the MD management board... that, no-one actually comes and monitors...
(c) Constant bickering by the states as to whom is ripping off whom / mismanaging the system
(d) Drought.. yes, this does indeed play a significant role in the problem
The Governments involved (yes all of them, doesn't matter the flavour) love this ****.. because the more people bicker, point fingers, etc... the less they actually have to do to fix the problem..
I grew up in Adelaide.. driest friggin state in the country... In the riverland, some people started to wise up & switch from open ditch irrigation of fruit crops to dripfeed, straight to the root base.. yields sky rocketed, water useage for those farms plummeted... What did the government do with all that extra water... well, it allowed those farmers to onsell their unused allocation to those who refused to move away from open ditch irrigation...
The reality is, we can have all the great schemes in the world.. all the monitoring technology the world can offer but, if there is no political will to actively monitor useage, offer incentives to reduce use, enforce even the existing rules.. then.. nothing will change...
It's not just the same with water allocations/management, it's the same with everything.. just look at the Banking Royal Commission report.. sure the banks did bad things.. but, the rules to protect customers already existed.. the commission to enforce those rules existed... but, did sweet FA!!
You want change... then stand up & demand it.. join the farmers who also want change... stop the bull**** & stop allowing our politicians to remain unaccountable for their failures...
I remember to some extent (I was still quite young), the seventies.. when people got up and marched in the street to demand change.. pretty much now... no-one bothers... we comment on social media... (me too...)..
It's time we got off our collective butts & reminded these idiots who they work for...
Please, I don't want this to turn into a political debate... left vs right vs whatever... it is we the people (yeah, a seppo term I know) that continue to allow this crap to happen because we are apathetic!! We all want someone (else) to do something about it...
Rant over.. you can all chill now... Mods, if this breaches forum rules, I apologise... it wasn't intentional & feel free to delete...
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