Farmers are angry and they are protesting. Owing to extreme resistance by the Federal Government to amend the Murray Darling Basin Plan, farmers across the region are mounting a protest convoy to travel from Yass to Canberra.
Speaking on behalf of the group, Jan Beer, a farmer from Yea in Victoria said, “The reason we are protesting is that the Basin Plan has failed on every level and the politicians are failing to acknowledge the destruction being wrought by it in its current format.
“It is destroying communities and is creating unemployment throughout the region. It has economically ruined once viable farms and jeopardises the national food security.
“In trying to satisfy downstream recently constructed environmental needs in the South Australia, Murray River estuary, it is destroying areas of existing riverbanks and forests here in Victoria and New South Wales.
“We are heading to Canberra to confront the politicians head on and to ask the Prime Minister to explain why are they so intent on continuing with a plan that is simply not working as initially intended, and is destroying regional communities, farmers, our productive agricultural sector and our nation’s food security.”
The Can the Plan convoy is assembling at the Caltex Service Station in Yass, New South Wales at 11am on Monday December 2 and then the convoy will travel to Canberra where a Water Embassy will be established in front of Parliament House.
