"David Hare-Scott" wrote in message
...
I don't really think this is OT but I have labelled it as such in case.
Many aspects of the future of this country are tied up in this - not the
least of which is whether or not the ratbags in Canberra can ever put aside
party politics to get on with actually governing.

Here is the executive summary

http://www.thebasinplan.mdba.gov.au/...cutive-summary

One point to note about the process, as opposed to the content, is that
both Parties voted for the Water Act of 2007 that specifies what the
Commission must do. So any polly who now says the Commission is not doing
what they should be doing is either ignorant or a liar or both. Similarly
any who say there is a solution that will make everybody happy should go
back on to their medication and preferably resign public office.

I feel confident that we will now see a rush of populism as those who need
to shore up shaky numbers will snatch some headlines by taking the part of
the irrigators who are currently feeling pain whether or not it is in the
irrigators' or the nation's long term interest to do so.

i suspect that if there were to be a noticably big rush of populism you'd
have seen it by now (from the liberal party of course - not the nationals as
they can't seem to manage to participate in big rushes of anything at all,
really :-) it's not clear to me that any self-serving... oops, i mean,
self-respecting politician is going to get too animated about a bunch of
disrespectful angry rednecks having town meetings & putting on a bit of
performance art when all that has happened is that the matter is finally
open for discussion. there's no mass of public support either way really -
which makes it hard to fit a definition of "populist", you must agree.

on some level, everyone knows that if the river dies then all the towns
along it are going to die anyway, water entitlements notwithstanding. there
will always be groups of people who argue voraciously against their own
self-interest (as well as the interests of everyone else) & it's frankly
time to ignore that sort of carry-on in the pursuit of a solution that helps
everyone & where everyone has to change some of their behaviours or
expectations. being ridiculously optimistic at times, i hope to see such a
solution at the end of this process!

philosophically, it completely exasperates me that country people & farmers
especially, long regarded as the biggest whingers the world has ever seen or
ever will, are acting out that stereotype for the cameras yet again, &
cannot gain anything at all by doing that, instead of trying to participate
helpfully & help solve the problems for themselves & everyone else.

i grew up in an irrigation area & there, whingeing is like fresh air or
sunshine, they apparently need a little every day just to be going on with -
it must be something in the water g. (i don't live in such an area now, &
there's not much to whinge about here, except the local council :-) i am
tired of such people purporting to be representative. we don't live in a
world where it's just 1953 every day of one's life - it's time to move on &
make some changes & make real plans for the future.

thanks for listening to me whinge! g
kylie
p.s. i think bob katter is fairly adorable in many ways really, but i also
disagree with the perennial idea (one of his personal favourites) that
"rural areas" are all going to drop dead within weeks without endless
subsidies, special treatment, big water entitlements, gobs of middle-class
welfare, and so forth. if that were really true, the kindest thing to do
would be to let them die, ... which i very much doubt would actually happen.
it is probably past time to call the bluff of some of these people. the
irrigators merely should be going first.