Wise words being ignored

It is obvious that Prime Minister Howard and his glove puppets, Malcolm Turnbull and Bill Heffernan, are not listening to wise words when it comes to the Federal Government push to divert Clarence catchment water.

"6 Coastal Catchments
It is obvious why much governmental and intergovernmental focus is on inland river systems. But the tendency to draw nation-wide conclusions about water planning, management, priorities and strategies from detailed analysis of major inland systems can lead to inappropriate priorities and ineffective strategies for coastal catchments. The primary reason is that coastal catchments meet multiple different needs and support a vast array of users, from primary to secondary industry, from old pastoral to new industries like aquaculture, from urban development to recreation and so on. The river systems are quite different ecologically from inland systems and meet very different economic and social needs. It follows that there are many stakeholders, including state agencies and authorities, councils, a variety of catchment, river, water, land and estuarine management committees, communities, land holders and water users.

In recognition of these differences, the NWI could require state and territory governments to give special focus to coastal river systems and to exercise care in using inland experience to guide coastal planning and management in water resource management, water allocation and trading."

[Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering [ATSE],National Water Commission's National Water Initiative First Biennial Assessment,submission,February 2007]