Dear Editor,
I have attended more water meetings than I care to remember. There is no question that water is the most important ingredient for communities across northern Victoria. As such I have been actively involved in the Speak Up Campaign activities to highlight the impacts to communities and the environment across the southern basin and I am a Victorian representative on their committee.
Credit must be given to the advocacy from our NSW cousins, not just Speak Up, but the other organisations across the river who have worked tirelessly to highlight the failings in the Basin Plan and the inequity in water sharing that has lead to the recent reliance on the Murray to deliver all the water to South Australia, who never seem to have a drought.
It is now Victoria’s turn to lift the ante and unite with southern NSW to deliver a better deal for all those across the southern connected system. It must begin next Thursday 27th February when the Murray-Darling Basin Inspector General Mick Keelty arrives in Shepparton at the RSL at 10am. Victoria must put any insecurities aside and realise that the potential to lift the lid on the political influence of the Northern Basin and the failure to accept historical evidence by South Australia have lead both sides of the river in this region to suffer.
Yours,
Stuart Hipwell
Wunghnu, Vic
