keywords: Murray-Darling

  • ENVIRONMENT

    The great Murray-Darling swindle

    • Greg Foyster
    • 01 March 2019
    11 Comments

    A million dead fish, floating on putrid green water. Images of this ecological catastrophe on the Darling River over summer shocked the nation. Was it the result of drought? Blue-green algae poisoning? After at least four published reports, we know the answers. It's time to state plainly what has been going on, and who is to blame.

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  • ENVIRONMENT

    Turnbull twist tests common good in Murray-Darling Plan

    • Andrew Hamilton
    • 12 November 2015
    8 Comments

    In recent reflection on the future path of Australia the common good has made a welcome return. At the same time the Turnbull Government has transferred responsibility for water resources, including the Murray-Darling Basin, from the Department of the Environment to the Department of Trade. The two things seem to be unrelated. But the concept of the common good has been embodied robustly in the Murray-Darling Basin plan and survives in the midst of continuing conflict.

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  • ENVIRONMENT

    Tony Windsor's Murray-Darling prescience

    • Tony Kevin
    • 19 October 2010
    7 Comments

    Irrigated agriculture systems, like electric grids and city roads, trigger a government's duty of care to the human communities that they sustain. Particularly when they were built with the blood, sweat and tears that went into building our Murray-Darling Basin irrigation communities.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Mary MacKillop's lesson for Murray-Darling irrigators

    • Michael Mullins
    • 18 October 2010
    7 Comments

    Tony Windsor is proving himself to be a politician of integrity and tact, but has his work cut out for him in the case of the Murray-Darling Basin irrigators. Mary MacKillop was a champion of rural and regional Australians. It is worth considering her strategy in the context of the irrigators' struggle for survival.

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  • ENVIRONMENT

    New ways forward for climate action

    • Greg Foyster
    • 24 May 2019
    7 Comments

    There's a lot to say about the election, and much nonsense doing the rounds. Here's a summary of what went wrong and some ideas for communicating climate change over the next three years. The first thing to note is that the election probably wasn't won or lost on climate.

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  • ENVIRONMENT

    The Darling's dead fish of late capitalism

    • Cristy Clark
    • 17 January 2019
    13 Comments

    A key benefit asserted to justify treating water as an economic good is that the market will encourage 'high-value' water use to be prioritised. But, as the fish of the Darling River and the people of Walgett are experiencing, the problem with commodifying water is its social and environment values are not naturally reflected in the market.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Only good policy will save Labor

    • Michael Mullins
    • 23 July 2012
    7 Comments

    The passage of time has shown that it has not made a great deal of difference whether the ALP leader was Gillard or Rudd. In all likelihood, it doesn't really matter who leads Labor to the 2013 election. What is more important is that they are able to demonstrate good policy achievement.

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  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    Australia's mystic river

    • Poet
    • 03 April 2012
    3 Comments

    That river is almost embarrassed at the space it occupies — professionally shocked to be spotted despite the camouflage dust it wears. It scrawls on the grey-soil plains. This consecrated vellum is read by cockatoos.

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  • ENVIRONMENT

    Truth drowned in river system's fight for life

    • Charles Rue
    • 30 November 2011
    19 Comments

    A Riverina farmer told ABC Radio that the environment will always survive, but once communities die, they're gone. The truth is that without protecting the ecological health of the rivers, dependent communities will not survive.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Regional issues beyond the mad hatter's tea party

    • Rachel Baxendale
    • 04 July 2011
    4 Comments

    Some regional Australians may be enjoying the political day in the sun of rural independents Bob Katter, Tony Windsor and Rob Oakeshott. But despite the prominence of the NBN and the Murray Darling Basin, flippancy and apathy dominate metropolitan Australia's attitude to regional and rural issues.

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  • ENVIRONMENT

    Rain can't drown climate truth

    • Tony Kevin
    • 22 November 2010
    6 Comments

    Australians can rejoice in the good year our farmers are having. But farming in southern Australia continues to be a high-risk business. Climate change is inevitably going to make it harder to sustain all kinds of agriculture in inland southern Australia.

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  • ENVIRONMENT

    Australian farmers sold short by cheap food

    • Sarah Kanowski
    • 09 March 2010
    10 Comments

    Throughout his 2007 election campaign Rudd pledged to address 'inflated grocery prices'. But Australians are spending less at the supermarket than ever before. Cheap food has come at a cost to the livelihoods of Australian farmers and the environment.

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