Water woes
AS I was lying awake in bed this morning, the beautiful sound of rain continued to pitter patter on the roof.
It had been doing so for hours; God bless the rain.
I lay there reflecting on the constant feedback we receive from scientists and politicians about climate change and the need for humankind to save and effectively use our water because, they tell us, it is going to become increasingly scarce.
As a farmer who proudly grows food for Australians and others around the world, I have learned the value of water and the need to ensure we use it efficiently.
So it was with sad reflection I kept listening to the rain and pondered the scandalous waste of this precious resource which today has become the norm.
We store water in the Hume and Dartmouth Dams, then send it all the way down the Murray Drain (which used to be an iconic river), with massive losses from evaporation and seepage along the way.
It reaches the huge lakes near the sea in South Australia, where we lose the equivalent of 1.6 Sydney Harbours worth of water every year.
And what’s left pours out into the ocean.
Some of our biggest businessmen, including Hungry Jacks founder Jack Cowin, in past weeks have spoken about the folly of pouring water into the sea.
The Australian Agricultural Company chief executive Hugh Killen this week spoke about the potential of harvesting water that goes out to sea.
But our politicians don’t listen.
They continue allowing waste and mismanagement because fixing the problem might cost them votes; we can’t have that, can we?
Maybe I’ll fall asleep while I’m listening to the rain, and when I wake up the water mismanagement nightmare that myself and so many others have been living for over a decade will be nothing but a bad dream.
But, I think that is unlikely because at this point we do not have politicians with the courage to fix it, nor an MDBA with the courage to call out the failings and advocate for change.
For the sake of our nation’s future, I can only pray that one day they will wake up to their folly.
Kathy Smits,
Deniliquin
Animal activist laws
ANIMAL abusers on factory farms were delighted with federal and state governments’ knee-jerk reactions to exposés by animal activists, announcing legislation which made penalties for entry onto a farm far more draconian than other forms of trespass.
A criminal stalking your home could easily receive a lighter sentence than a person trying to detail animal abuses, such as chickens suffering in filthy, windowless sheds with 40,000 other birds, or animals being branded, dehorned or castrated without pain relief.
But now the abusers are screaming, as the legislation is revealed.
In a turn up for the books, the most recent legislation in Western Australia is giving vast new powers to animal welfare inspectors to enter premises without a warrant or prior consent.
No activist wants to spend a night looking at appalling abuse in filthy, crowded, stinking sheds – it’s distressing and dangerous work.
They go there for one thing – to document and hopefully stop the suffering of millions of sensitive animals, whose lives and welfare are measured only in dollars.
If government inspectors are prepared to do that instead, everyone should be happy.
Except, apparently, those who have something to hide.
Desmond Bellamy,
Special Projects Coordinator
PETA Australia
