Plans for a national water entitlement and trading scheme are being questioned by farm and political leaders. Pat Byrne reports. The Federal Government has placed water issues high on its list of priorities in the run up to the next election. Part of this is to include a national water entitlement and trading framework to…
The Murray Valley Community Action Group (MVCAG) has estimated the cost of taking 1,500 gigalitres, or 15% of farmers water allocations in the Murray Darling Basin, at over $5 billion. The proposal to remove water allocations is contained in The Living Murray report, produced by the Murray Darling Basin Ministerial Council. The MVCAG Chairman, Lester…
A survey of farmers in Australia’s largest sugar cane growing area, the Burdekin district west of Townsville, has found farmers totally opposed to proposed industry deregulation, strongly in favour of a pool price for cane, and concerned that they are not being adequately represented to government. The survey was conducted by the Sugar Industry Reform…
Queensland Premier Beattie has a Bill before state parliament to deregulate the sugar industry. It follows the signing last year of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the Federal and Queensland governments to deregulate the industry. However, in contradiction to the intent of the MoU, Deputy Prime Minister John Anderson has said that he would…