Confrontation and misleading statements seem to be the weapons of choice for irrigators responding to the Murray-Darling Draft Plan.
The NSW Irrigators Council's October newsletter makes this clear. It says that last year they managed to raise the ire of the public against the guidelines that preceded the Plan, even leading to public burnings of the guide. It suggests that a similar negative strategy will be required this time.
On ABC radio, CEO of the National Irrigators Council Tom Chessan made spurious suggestions about building more dams and the like. On another program, Riverina farmer Michael Kettlewell claimed 'the environment will always survive. It has been doing so for millions of years. It dries up, dies and then gets reborn. Communities and towns do not ... once they die, they're gone.'
The truth is that without protecting the ecological health of rivers, communities will not survive. That is the proper order. Caring for communities means caring for the land and water on which they depend.
The tactics of irrigator councils play on people's fears. Members of these organisations need to select leaders who are more balanced in what they say and do. Distorting the truth to favour one's own group is to act with bias or even duplicity. This can pit irrigator farmers' rights against fellow farmers' rights, as happened with floodplain farmers and those in the Macquarie marshes.
Getting the facts right is a pathway to making good choices and acting with integrity. Getting ecological facts right is also fundamental to understanding the history of river systems and the varied forms of life they support. Ignorance is not bliss.
The 2004 statement 'The Gift of Water', by the Catholic Church's 11 bishops with dioceses in the river catchments, is instructive. Parish priests in the Basin might make copies so that their parishioners are not misled by the hype promoted by some irrigator lobbyists and financial manipulators. Schools can prepare their students to deal with the bias and misinformation they might hear.
On a recent trip to north western NSW I was impressed by the evolving way in which farmers are going about their business. Ecological awareness has led them to adopt low impact tilling and reduce fertiliser loads. They have decided to live as 'stewards', with respect and within creation's constraints, and not be uncaring 'masters'. They have spent money to make the necessary ecological changes.
Getting the finances right is essential to the sustainable farming that underpins sustainable communities. Bean counters who demand increased profits each year do not know farming. Weather can be a great teacher of humility for people who indulge in the pride of control. Over thousands of years many irrigation based cultures collapsed in such pride.
It is folly to presume that investments can be fine-tuned to the point of counting on average water availability every year. Wise planning considers that the amount of water available for farming will in all likelihood be well below any calculated average.
The bean counters also need to be watched when it comes to water trading and increased ground water allocations for mines as outlined in the Draft Plan. Many traders have made tidy sums already. One wonders if financiers lobbied for the increased allocations of ground water, which will be a windfall for mine expansion and coal seam gas explorers.
'No' can be a valid response to a planning application. Not every financial dream can be acted on if respect for other people and the environment is taken into account.
The city cousins of rural communities share the responsibility for growing a good outcome from the Draft Plan. Manipulative farming investments often originate in the cities. Past investment mistakes need to be acknowledged, and new ventures supported financially. Consumers, too, need to take responsibility for the food and fibre they consume.
When it comes to creating solutions to any problem, Catholic Social Teaching is strong on the need for dialogue and cooperation. These are necessary if the common good is to be achieved. Confrontation is the way of the bully. It is short-sighted and self-interested.
The Draft Plan wisely sets long term goals and allows time for them to be achieved: 2750 GL for the rivers over seven years. It may have been even wiser to set the long term goal at the near-4000 GL believed scientifically to be required to ensure a healthy Basin. But at least the Draft Plan has got the order right, in looking first to the rivers, which support the farms, which support the communities.
Trying to be the 'winner' in discussions and decisions about the Murray Darling Basin will do no one any good. Dialogue and cooperation will help us to discern a way forward. It will be a work in progress, evolving as we keep rivers-farms-communities together in our vision. It will lead to a good outcome for future generations, and a source of renewed life for us here and now.
Dr Charles Rue is a Sydney-based priest of the Columban Missionary Society, and coordinator of Columban JPIC (Justice, Peace and the Integrity of Creation).