Traditional owners say it is "absolutely disgraceful" that just 1 per cent of water in Australia's largest river system is owned by Aboriginal people, and want the Federal Government to honour its $40-million commitment to help them buy water.
Murray-Darling Basin communities to receive $34-million cash injection to aid water recovery
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The grants are designed to strengthen economies along the Murray River.
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Key points:
A budget of $34 million has been announced for round three of the Murray-Darling Basin Plan Economic Development Program
Grants between $50,000 and $1 million are on offer
Federal Water Minister Keith Pitt will spend the week touring impacted communities
Federal Minister for Water Keith Pitt said the grants would provide opportunities to develop projects in communities impacted by water recovery under the basin plan. This is about driving those regional economies, strengthening those regional economies, proving more local jobs into the future and, most importantly, to add some more diversification to those regional centres, he said.
If the National Party is the answer, what on earth is the question?
Any party that genuinely cares about the prospects for a dry and devastated rural Australia would be worried sick.
This morning’s
RN Breakfast interview with Water Minister Keith Pitt tells you everything you need to know about the shonky, negligent shambles the National Party has become. A melanoma on the face of the Australian body politic.
Starting in that faux jocular aw shucks I m a country boy tone Nats love (
yeaaaaaah hiiiiii Fran.. ) Pitt quickly found that he would have to answer actual questions about the Productivity Commission report on national water supply. It was painfully clear that he probably hadn t read the report which is strong on water recycling for urban needs, and rights buy-backs, and scathing about new infrastructure, i.e. dams, which can be up to 50 times as expensive as other solutions.
First Nations call on government to end water rights drought
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First Nations call on government to end water rights drought
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Aboriginal peoples barely own a drop of water in the vast Murray-Darling Basin water market, and First Nations groups say government inaction is denying their Indigenous rights to use the resource for environmental, social and economic purposes.
The Murray-Darling Basin water market is worth more than $16 billion, but Aboriginal organisations in NSW own just $16 million in water assets, or 0.1 per cent, according to a study from Griffith University – and First Nations groups own very little else in other states.
Murray-Darling Basin s revamped compliance role to be headed by former NSW deputy premier Troy Grant
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WedWednesday 16
DecDecember 2020 at 4:35am
Troy Grant was with NSW Police for 22 years before serving in state parliament from 2011 to 2019.
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Former Nationals MP Troy Grant will oversee a new Murray-Darling Basin compliance body after his appointment today as Interim Inspector-General of Water Compliance (IIGWC).
Key points:
The position of Interim Inspector-General is merged with the MDBA s compliance role
The Government hopes to have the new role up and running by July 2021
As part of a $38 million shakeup of policing water rules across the basin, the role merges the existing Independent Inspector-General with the Murray-Darling Basin Authority s (MDBA) Office of Water Compliance.