Plug the pipe

Jan Beer, Plug The Pipe spokesperson and environmental activist in opposition to North-South Pipeline, is taking legal action against Government Agency Melbourne Water for alleged infringements of her right to privacy over a 2 year period.

The original case for Labor's controversial $1 billion food bowl upgrade was rejected by state cabinet because the government's promised water savings could not be achieved for the price tag of $1 billion, it has been revealed.
Farmers have slammed an independent report that says Murrumbidgee and Murray irrigators should make big sacrifices to help revive the Murray-Darling Basin. The cut would drain at least $2.7 billion out of the basin's economy.
The north-south pipeline has provided a mere 16.7 billion litres. That translates to a piddling 1% of Melbourne’s current water supply.

Victoria's Water Minister, Tim Holding, is angry that his government's regulations to allow country water to be funnelled to Melbourne via a north-south pipeline were rejected in the Victorian parliament on Wednesday. The opposition moved a disallowance motion to block the order, which regulates the delivery of pipeline water. The Greens and DLP supported the motion, giving the coalition the numbers it needed for it to pass.

“Today’s successful disallowance motion in Parliament highlights the overwhelming opposition to the Government’s attempts to loot water from food producers and the environment because it has failed to plan for Melbourne’s future water needs,” Mr Ryan, Liberal Nationals Coalition.

The Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizens was passed in France in 1789 and people all over the world since have based their social standards on these rights. Serfdom was repealed and it was declared That Property is an inviolable and inalienable right and That the natural rights of man are liberty, property, safety and resistance against oppression.

In Australia, however, these rights are increasingly in doubt. On 27 August a case in Seymour Magistrates Court will examine right of property owners against the state: Brumby Government against two Yea landowners. Rights to enter freehold land prior to acquisition under Land Acquisition and Compensation Act.

In "North-south pipeline figures all at sea" in the Melbourne Age of 21 Jun 09, Melissa Fyfe reported that the basic assumptions used to predict the amount of water to be delivered to Melbourne from the North South Pipeline have been proven wrong, further confirming what the group Plug the Pipe has argued all along. Here is their response.

How rural communities and the environment will miss out in Victorian Premier Brumby's privatised water market.

Also published in Weekly Times Now. See also: Transcript of interview with Maude Barlow, Canadian water rights activist on Background Briefing of 12 Oct 08.

Concerned about environment, water, democracy?

Federal Environment Minister Garrett is to allow water savings predestined to revive the dying Murray-Darling system to be used by the Brumby government for the yet-to-be-completed North South Pipeline. At some yet-to-be-determined future date that water is to be handed back to the Murray-Darling system at the discretion of the Brumby Government.

See also: Coalition pledges to shun pipeline in the Age of 19 Sep 08, www.plugthepipe.com.

Should Australia allow its agricultural soils to be destroyed because of economic pressures caused by our unsustainable booms in mining and real estate?

See also: Working the land - or not of 24 Jun 08 by Jenny Hume on Web Diary, Who owns your sewage? of 3 Jul 08 by Valerie Yule on Online Opinion, Last gasp for single desk marketing of Australian wheat of 17 Jun 08, Peak oil prices cause South Australian Farmers to call for 'fair market forces' of 10 Jun 08, Orwellian Waterworks: big-agribusiness and Victorian Gov of 27 May 08, Insight program's take on Labor Shortage of 17 Jun 08, A 10,000 year misunderstanding of 1 May 08 by Canadian soil microbiologist Peter Salonius, I will govern for all Victorians (caveat: but only if you are powerful and connected) of 26 Jun 08.