Labor Governments have traditionally represented working Australians, but a leading advocacy group says that tradition has been abandoned by the Albanese Government.
Thank you for reading this post, don't forget to subscribe!The Prime Minister continues to ignore the plight of hard working Australians in the food processing sector, instead prioritising environmental votes in capital cities and South Australia, according to the Murray Regional Strategy Group.
“The manner in which Albanese and his key Cabinet ally Murray Watt have deserted their working base is a sad reflection on the direction Australian politics has taken.
“Workers are being pushed onto dole queues because we have a government that sets its priorities around securing city votes, not securing the future of its traditional supporters,” says MRSG executive officer Shelley Scoullar.
She cited the restructure of SunRice workforces in the NSW Riverina, and the potential shutdown of Australia’s largest tomato processor Kagome, based in Echuca, as two prime examples of the consequences from Labor’s insatiable appetite for water buybacks.
Hundreds of jobs are in jeopardy, with the flow-on effect hitting rural businesses very hard.
“But there appears to be zero care factor from a government which made a hollow promise that it would ‘govern for all Australians’,” Mrs Scoullar said.
MRSG last week met with Murray Darling Basin Authority CEO Andrew McConville to again highlight its concerns around implementation of the Basin Plan and, in particular, the Basin Plan Review process.
“We appreciated the time given by Mr McConville and his acknowledgement of issues in the Basin Plan that need to be addressed, and we have expressed a view that we believe it’s time the MDBA took a stronger and more focused approach to these issues,” Mrs Scoullar said.
This includes the social and economic damage to rural communities, which needs to be adequately researched and highlighted.
“While Mr McConville has apologised for leaving out agriculture and socio-economic factors in the review process, we are keen to see some action,” Mrs Scoullar said.
“This must include drilling down to job losses at local level. It’s pointless saying there has been little or no impact across the Basin from water buybacks without studying rural local government areas.
“As an example, from 2022 to 2024 more than 7,000 new public service jobs were created in Canberra, which is part of the Murray-Darling Basin. If there was the loss of more than 7,000 jobs in rural communities in the same period, the macro data would tell us there has been no impact from water recovery.
“That is obviously incorrect. In reality, Canberra has had a jobs surge, thanks to the public sector, while rural communities have been smashed due to buybacks.
“This example shows we must get fair dinkum with our reporting mechanisms, and stop using ‘broad brush’ statistics that paint a false picture.”
Mrs Scoullar said the MDBA had also acknowledged we have recovered enough environmental water and the focus now needs to be on using it to maximum efficiency.
She said MRSG has repeatedly asked the MDBA to recommend to the Water Minister to stop the water buybacks program as there is unequivocal evidence that it is producing two outcomes – firstly, recovering more water will not provide additional environmental benefit, and secondly, it’s resulting in massive job losses and negatively impacting on the nation’s Gross Domestic Product.
“We believe the MDBA needs to be firm and clear in its recommendations to the Minister, highlighting the need for policy that mitigates job losses, especially when it is coming with minimal environmental gain.”
Mrs Scoullar said MRSG expects the recommendations flowing from the Basin Plan Review would be emphatic in highlighting the above issues, as well as the massive conveyance losses required to deliver vast volumes downstream.
“While the government may not like hearing the truth, it’s time to stop beating around the bush. The flaws in the Basin Plan must be publicly and firmly exposed so we can start the remedial action that is needed to fix the plan, help the recovery process for struggling regional communities, and ensure hard working Australians in our agriculture and food processing industries have a future,” Mrs Scoullar said.