...........PLUG THE PIPE Campaign

North South Pipeline.......and protect the future of country communities Over 1/4 million vistors

     

 

TO READ THE AUDITOR GENERALS REPORT - CLICK HERE

www.theage.com.au - Court bid to block water plan details

 

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Geelong Independent | Star News Group Local News, Sport, Entertainment

RISING living costs have left one-in-10 Geelong families unable to put food on the table, according to
Victorian Council of Social Services.
And more pain is on the way after Barwon Water announced a 10 per cent hike in charges, with
average household bills to rise $80 to $868 a year.

Feeding off incompetent governments

Audit reveals Brumby's $2 billion water rush

Brumby water plan damned

THE AUDITOR GENERAL REPORTS - Watchdog mauls water saving claims

JUDICIAL INQUIRY MUST INVESTIGATE BRUMBY'S BOTCHED WATER PROJECTS ...

Millions 'wasted' on farm water

$1b plan risks food - Local News - News - General - Sunraysia Daily

Money flowing down the drain as water logic runs dry

Cracks in water plan revealed

Time to come clean on the cost of water‎

Sydney Morning Herald - 2 related articles »

Why hasn't commercial TV explained Labor's bungling like this ...

Promises broken to rural people - Opinion - Letters to the Editor ...

Brumby's blueprint for the bush - State News - Agribusiness and ...

Pipeline critic spied on, tailed

Water plans drift behind a veil of secrecy

Luck runs dry

Water savings shown to be absurd mirage

Brumby's water plan savaged

Parched farmers vote to abandon irrigation

'I was scared': Labor MP accused of tirade Unacceptable Behavior by MP

www.theage.com.au - Few happy as voters' eyes turn to water works

$150m desal pay bonanza

Living in defiance of a drying climate

www.theage.com.au - Water falls short of pipeline promise

Why the rush to ease water restrictions? AGE EDITORIAL

Riverine Herald: Read Story

Melbourne Water Restrictions To Ease From 3a

www.theage.com.au - Foodbowl water figures adjusted

Labor takes 20 Billion Litres of water from Lake Eildon | The ...

Murray algae alert - National Rural News - Agribusiness and ...

Brumby gushes over addition to water supply

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A draft Public Environment Report (PER) for the operation of the fully modernised Goulburn Murray Irrigation District has been prepared for the Commonwealth Department of the Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts (DEWHA) and is now available for public consultation. CLICK HERE

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Water-bill rise quietly pays for $70m upgrade

Water River algae fears bloom - Weekly Times Now

Call for recycled water pipeline

Country pays a high price to slake the city's thirst | theage.com.au

The Government is pork-barrelling over pipeline

OPINION: Sugarloaf Pipeline a loser - Opinion - News | Lilydale ...

City will not need pipe water - The North South (MYKI) PIPELINE

Quasi-terrorist treatment for tea-and-biscuit protesters

OPI called in as police files storm intensifies

Watchdog wary of 'secret files' on desal protesters

Brumby lets ALP's standing slip in regional Victoria

Melbourne water storages get huge boost

What is contemptuous Wong hiding?

Wong withholds $1bn water funds

Pipeline threatens endangered species and our struggling rivers ...

Threat to turn off tap on water grants | The Australian

Down the gurgler | Herald Sun

Economic rationalists have hijacked water policy, at our peril

Water crisis as bad as a war: ALP

Water solutions lost to bay

WHITE ELEPHANT SHOULD BE NO SURPRISE

Through the extensive recent media coverage of the major issues threatening the operation of the north-south pipeline, one issue that has failed to attract much attention is that, despite dire rainfall predictions and the blocking of the Bulk Entitlement for the pipeline in the Upper House, the Brumby Government continues to forge ahead with the major and costly utilities for the pipeline including two massive pump stations and an electricity substation. This approach highlights one of the major failings of this project from the start and one which will be a major factor in its almost assured White Elephant status.

During a period in our national and state economy when the application of sound business practice and a thorough cost benefits analysis for major infrastructure projects should be a given for any State Government, particularly one contemplating a project of this magnitude, it is staggering that neither occurred.

The pipeline should never have proceeded without a thorough, open and independent cost benefit analysis. It says much about the Government’s willingness to sacrifice good governance and good business for a politically expedient quick water fix for Melbourne in time for the next State Election.

So it should come as no surprise now that there is no water for the pipeline. A detailed cost benefit analysis at the outset would have ensured that this project never saw the light of day. Logic alone should dictate that connecting a pipeline from a near empty storage makes no sense. Logic also dictates that when irrigation channels are not flowing, there is no water being lost and therefore no savings to be made. Irrigation channels are not flowing because irrigators have no allocation for this season. However, when challenged on water savings only last week, Minister Holding claimed “water savings are being made right now in irrigation channels in northern Victoria”. This statement is yet another example of the extensive spin which has been used to sell this project to Victorian voters. The facts are much less appealing.

As a former local government administration director, this project has defied every principal of due process that I have always held as being fundamental to our democratic system of Government. It is the most blatant example of a politically expedient decision first rationalise later approach which seems to have become “the new planning”. With this approach, even the very Government agencies whose job it is to protect the environment, aboriginal and cultural heritage, our waterways and our social and economic structures and systems, have been compromised in their ability to act impartially. They had had no hope of doing so when a predetermined outcome was the starting base.

The project was approved by the Planning Minister, Justin Madden, who promptly stripped planning controls from the Shire of Murrindindi, an approach that has ensured that there would not be any of the delays commonly associated with meaningful consultation and engagement with affected parties or environmental organizations. One of the conditions of his approval required the establishment of a community consultative committee. A staggering 12 months after he imposed this requirement and when the final pipe has already been laid, this committee is still not operational.

The impacts of this project are multi-layered, complicated and insidious.
Perhaps its greatest impact is the feeling of powerlessness that so many people have experienced, a powerlessness not normally associated with the fundamental rights we expect living in a democratic society. This feeling is very difficult to describe. It is something you have to experience to really understand.

Who are these people? They are the “mum and dad protestors”. They are the landowners whose prized farmland and family homes through which it has cut an ugly swathe. They are the people passionate about saving the Goulburn River and the Murray Darling Basin. They are the people who have had to stand by helplessly as forests were bulldozed and threatened species relocated to a more convenient location. They are the farmers and food producers downstream, on their knees after years of drought, leaving their farms and their livelihoods in droves. They are my friend arrested and removed from her own land for daring to stand in the way of the bullies and bulldozers before they had even legally acquired it. It is the frustrated Melburnians who know there are better options. It is all of the people whose stories remain untold. One day they could be you.

It is astounding that the project was able to progress so far before finally being revealed for the fiasco that many suspected it was always destined to become. How could the normal checks and balances we expect of an elected Government have failed to such an extent? How can Mr Brumby argue on the one hand that climate change requires us to throw out the old rulebook when it comes to fires, but ignore its impact on water availability in the river system he seeks to loot.

Perhaps one of the greatest tragedies is that after spending a billion dollars of taxpayers money, Melbourne is still no closer to a sustainable water future.
Minister Holding’s recent misguided artistic media stunt depicting the hands of people in the north of the State reaching out to help those in the south on the last pipe to be laid only served to highlight how removed he is from reality. The north south pipeline is not a happy picture.

Artist : Michelle Arter

Water pipeline transfer disputed | The Australian

Wimmera Mallee water for city

Revenge of the toenails | Herald Sun

Water Irrigation meter glitch - Weekly Times Now

City raids Wimmera water

Vic Govt warned over water removal - ABC News (Australian ...

 

Water State water theft claim - Weekly Times Now

Water plan a 'threat to river'

State Government could ban watering gardens as water runs out ...

Minister's poor decision-making‎

It's not drought, it's climate change, say scientists

Pipeline runs from storage that's empty - Opinion - Letters to the ...

Opinion Water claims are blackmail - Weekly Times Now

Bulk water entitlements disallowed | Greens MPs in Victori

ABC Stateline - The North South Pipeline - The Issues - Very GOOD

 

Govt high and dry after Victorian pipeline vote - ABC News ...

Stateline Victoria THE NORTH SOUTH PIPELINE

Spin 'army' left exposed

Steve Posselt

Finishes His Epic Journey to Highlight the Folly of the NS Pipeline

Well Done Steve

 

Zero Water Allocation For Irrigators Seasonal Allocations Updated

Opposition says Government will have to break promises for ...

Water shortage threatens pipe plan

River paddler to embark on protest trip

The folly of the State Government’s North-South pipeline water policy will be exposed by author, adventurer and lifelong water-engineer Steve Posselt, as he paddles and drags a kayak from Echuca to Melbourne, beginning August

Water Steve trips at pipeline madness - Weekly Times Now

Kenneth Davison - The AGE

Water policy delivers scary possibilities

The pipeline is designed to deliver water to Melbourne from the already stressed ... say the same thing about the Brumby Government's water policies? ..

Denying recycling just won't hold water

This is equal to a quarter of Melbourne's water demand, currently 380 ... to $600 million if it used the pipes purchased for the north-south pipeline. ...

Truth lost in waves of obfuscation

I don't think the Brumby Government has yet begun to understand the depth of ... The plan developed by Melbourne Water in 2002 was to pump part of this water to ... The Government's decision to scrap the pipeline to Yallourn on the .

Water campaign to flatter Labor image

Tim Holding should lift lid on cost of water plan | Herald Sun

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DSE Exposes "The Great Brumby Pipeline Lie"

19th June 2009

Extract From Pipeline Figures All At Sea

Melissa Fyfe THE AGE
June 21, 2009
http://www.theage.com.au/national/northsouth-pipeline-figures-all-at-sea-20090620-crz2.html

THE basic assumptions used to predict the amount of water to be delivered to Melbourne from the north-south pipeline have "now proven to be wrong", Victoria's top water adviser has admitted. The managing director of the Government's Office of Water, David Downie, said factors such as expected flows, water quality and rainfall predictions for the pipeline and irrigation projects had undergone "substantial changes" since April last year.

Mr Downie made the admission while giving tribunal evidence in a freedom-of-information case last week. His evidence also contradicted the Water Minister's announcements on when the controversial pipe and desalination plant would be finished. He said Melbourne Water had told the department the pipe would not be completed until at least the middle of next year, while Water Minister Tim Holding told Parliament last month that water would flow down the pipe as "early as February 2010".

Mr Holding refused to answer any questions on the record about Mr Downie's evidence and also refused requests for the correct assumptions the Government is now using to predict the flows from the north-south pipeline…………………………..

Our View:

From the very beginning, Plug the Pipe has always maintained the 'irrigation savings don't exist’ to supply 75 billion litres of water to Melbourne through the North South Pipeline. DSE's acknowledgement of this fact under present conditions in yesterdays AGE article by Melissa Fyfe simply confirms The Great Brumby Pipeline Lie. Also in that article, DSE claimed that conditions have only recently changed which is blatantly false and is a thinly veiled attempt to cover up the enormity of their deception or blunder. The water lost from the irrigation districts has not significantly changed since the announcement of the project. Equally offensive is DSE's defence in blaming the errors in water saving calculations on junior staff, a cowardly statement of low credibility considering the magnitude and complexity of the multi-billion dollar water plan.

The Brumby Government has acted with either unfathomable incompetence or with extreme dishonesty by its unwavering line that irrigation water savings will be achieved to supply 'new water' for Melbourne, the Murray Darling Basin crisis and Victoria's drought affected food producers.

The North South Pipeline was painted as the saviour through the Premiers 'New Water' for all but has turn out to be just a cruel deceptive trick that even the originally misguided can now see through.

The question remains, how many lies and blunders can a Government make on water before it damages their credibility and electability?

The North South Pipeline will be a major election issue in the minds of the average Victorian as they head to the polls next year. They will be thinking the promise of water nirvana and the reality of water hell as the pay more for water they did not receive from a dry pipe. Farmers and environmentalists will be thinking the same thing and we will be there to remind them all not to forget.

Plug the Pipe

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How much water do you use? It is not just the amount billed to you by your water company - Water Footprints Click HERE

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Against the flow

 By Jo Chandler , June 7, 2008

From the Age's, Grim days ahead for the Murray - National Rural News ...

Maude's Quote : " This is about the stupidest idea I have come across in a long, long time.."

CLICK HERE TO Listen

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Topher's Unpopular View is Very Popular

Over 19,000 People have Viewed this Video

5th Most Viewed News YouTube Video Last Week. This dynamic young man has taken it on to produce a Youtube video about the North South Pipeline. Simple, Funny, Excellent - worth a watch.

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Melbourne will use water from the stressed Murray River via the North South Pipeline. The pipeline is approved by both the Rudd and Brumby Governments. Click Here.

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CHECK OUT

Melbourne should use stormwater: expert 3 Jun 2009 ....Former Victorian water minister, turned sustainability boffin, John Thwaites, says stormwater is a cheap, green water source that has been underutilised.

State water targets rely on rising rainfall level years for water targets assigned to the north-south pipeline and food-bowl

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Finally the truth is coming out

 20th March 2009

For a long time, Plug the Pipe has been attempting to inform all Victorians that the State Government's north south pipeline (Goulburn River to Melbourne) is a nonsense.     The Age Newspaper, March 20 highlights that top water officials are expecting the north south pipeline to deliver much less water than promised.   In fact the article indicates that only 10GL of water will be available in 2011.

In 2010 the State Government is prepared to sell us all short in an attempt to win the next state election by claiming it will send the full 75GL (75 billion litres) of water down the pipe from savings to be made in the Foodbowl Modernisation Project even though only 10GL has been recovered to date.   

To get 75GL, the State Government has stated that they will store environmental water in Lake Eildon from other projects undertaken to improve river health.   These projects were completed to increase environmental flows to the Snowy and Murray Rivers.   

The State Government is prepared to transfer environmental water entitlements (water not transferred physically) from one area to another to ensure that Lake Eildon has enough to turn on the pumps prior to the next election.   The State Government will have first grab at the water from the Goulburn River system below Lake Eildon Weir for its pipeline to Melbourne. The Independent Auditor General raised serious questions about the project and in particular its reliance on projected savings from the Foodbowl Modernization Project that consisted of lining 5% of the irrigation channels with black plastic and replacement metering.  The amount of water claimed that would come from this work is just not there, it never was, it is all spin. The Victorian Government has shown deplorable governance principles in spending taxpayers money. Further, it shows the complete disregard by the Victorian Government, the Premier and his Water Minister for due and proper process.   Remember that the project was announced as a done deal without any involvement from the general public, scientific evidence or scrutiny. The Foodbowl Modernization Project smacks of social engineering as a major focus of the State Government.    The Government wants the removal of 800 dairy farms and small mixed farm businesses from the foodbowl region and now the talk about Swan Hill and Mildura being the first climate change victims due to a lack of water (Age, 13/3/2009).  

The Goulburn River is currently supplying Bendigo/Ballarat through the Goldfields Superpipe.   Recent announcements from Central Highlands Water is that further regional centers will be added to the Superpipe water grid, all to be supplied from the Goulburn River.   No wonder Swan Hill and Mildura are being threatened.     Down the track the north south pipeline is also earmarked to supply water to the Greater City of Geelong. 

The Government is pitting rural and regional areas against one another.
 
We must seriously ask ourselves, what value do we place on healthy river systems, our food production in Victoria and rural people living and working in country Victoria?    What are our values with regard to water resources generally?   We cannot be complacent anymore.

The real concern is the privatization of our water resources.   The money is in the transfer and trading of water, who can pay the most or who will have to pay. The most aggravating part of this fraud is that partial decentralization of water supply through sustainable means like rain water tanks and recycling are being ignored as it would make it difficult to tax and for big business interests to make financial returns.

REFERENCES

Vic pipeline now a pipe dream as water forecasts dry up - State ...

The only year the pipeline is expected to achieve its goal of delivering 75 billion litres to Melbourne is 2010, the same year the Brumby Government will ...

Exodus fears for Murray towns - National Rural News - Agribusiness ...

Speaking at a water conference in Melbourne yesterday, Department of ... "We think of climate change refugees as groups out in the Pacific Ocean on atolls about to be ... Mr Fitzpatrick did not name towns, but the comments were a clear ...

We can't keep it all: Murray-Darling expert - National Rural News ...

Mr Brumby said lifting water trading limits would suck the water and the wealth out of those regions. .... Vic pipeline now a pipe dream as water . ...

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Time to dither about the Murray has run out

The AGE Editorial , June 21, 2008

Senator Wong perhaps does not wish to give any hint that she might be preparing to be the minister who signs the death warrant of internationally acclaimed wetlands, and Mr Holding is a member of a Government noted for not bending to public criticism. But at the very least, the parlous state of the Goulburn revealed in the audit justifies a reassessment of the pipeline plan.

CLICK HERE FOR THE FULL REPORT

        

The North South Pipeline from The Murray Darling Basin to Melbourne is an Issue of National Importance

The Victorian Labor Government is insistent on building a pipeline from the Goulburn River across the Great Dividing Range to Sugarloaf Reservoir. This pipe is known as the North South Pipeline (NS Pipeline). The 75 billion litres of water in the NS Pipeline will leave the Murray Darling Basin to support Melbourne’s consumption. In Northern Victoria, the removal of the water will have drastic and detrimental effects on the farming areas, the social fabric of the region, the environment.

Essentially this pipeline will remove billions of litres of water from the Dry North affecting the Goulburn and Murray Rivers and many rural communities. This has been done without consultation and without mandate by an unelected Premier whose government's draconian style has alienated 100,000's of people in country Victoria at a time of extreme drought and suffering.

The Plug the Pipe Group was formed in June 2007 and now has over 3000 members (and growing) consisting of environmentalists, farmers, tourist operators, businessmen, urban and rural people. Our membership traverses the state from Mildura in the North West to Yea in the North East. Please Join Us.

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Melbourne will use water from Eildon Dam, a dam which has been near empty for over ten years. The Eildon Dam feeds the Goulburn and Murray Rivers. Click Here

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Quotes from our Guest Book

As a Koorie I think that the Brumby Government is a disgrace. The Goulburn river was never meant to flow over the Great Dividing Range. It offends my heritage, spiritual beliefs and threatens evidence of my peoples existence. Bulldozer Brumby - Just run over another Blackman!

Michael, Melbourne

I am against the "pipe" as it is a shortterm reactive measure by the current government to a long term problem that governments have turned a blind eye to in the past. If they truly want to put the pipe inplace and look after the areas from which they are draining the water from, let them give some positive news to the local areas ie ensure that Lake Eilden is filled first - to 100%, this will give the local communities a fall back position if water does run low or out. The pipe could then be a partially viable proposition. For the long term the government needs to think things through and get Water Ministers who know what the subject is all about and not newly appointed politicians who come into portfolios the subject matter of which they have not knowledge waht so ever.

Andrew Roff, Berwick

Short sighted, short termed, slow death!

Simon Kennedy, Numurkah

Over the last few years it has been hard enough for the farmers, households, employment etc. Mr brumby have you know shame, how dare you remove these people's lively hoods, who do you really think you are?. I am an a member of 4 generations of family in the Eildon area. I also know how hard it is to try and survive with very little water let alone make a living. PLEASE RECONSIDER

Kathy Taylor, Tabourie Lake, NSW

The Food Bowl Steering committee draft report make astounding reading and it is frightening to realise that many of the members are dairyfarmers with significant influence in the industry. On page 31 of the report, it states "The number of dairy businesses will continue to decline but produce 50% more milk. Farms will increase from the current 200 cow average to say 400 cows." If farms are milking 100% more cows and only producing 50% more milk thheir efficiency will be declining rapidly.

Neil Pankhurst, Tongala

How ridiculous to rob the farmers of water needed to grow crops just so Melbourne people can flush toilets! I have rain water tanks at home and run the entire house from them for at least 9 months of the year. If all Melbournians did the same, Brumbys' stupid pipeline would be redundant.

Russell Bunce, Oakleigh

Please don't take away the farmer's water!
The residents of Melbourne should be encouraged to use less water - it's not an unending resource. We in Canada, who are blessed with a tremendous supply of fresh water, have to learn to curb our use as well. Don't start taking from Peter to pay Paul!!

Alison MacIntosh, Mississauga, Ontario, Canada

Keep up the effort, If we fail, would the last one to leave the "Foodbowl" Shut off the lights please.

Kevin Bourke, Nathalia

Atrist : Chritine Arnott, Bendigo