DESPITE spending a billion dollars of Victorian taxpayers' money on the north-south pipeline, Melbourne is still no closer to a sustainable water future, says JO KNORR
Despite there being no end in sight to the drought afflicting northern Victoria, the Victorian Government continues to forge ahead with the costly utilities for the north-south pipeline, including two massive pump stations and an electricity substation.
It is beyond comprehension that no thorough cost-benefit analysis was undertaken before the Government committed to a project of this magnitude.
It says much about the Government's willingness to sacrifice good governance and good business practice for a politically expedient quick-fix for Melbourne in time for the next election.
It should come as no surprise that the Government is now scrambling to qualify water rights earmarked for the environment to send to Melbourne.
A detailed cost-benefit analysis would have ensured this project never saw the light of day.
Logic alone should dictate that connecting a pipeline from a near-empty storage to a major city 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.
Channels are not flowing because irrigators have little or no allocation.
But when recently challenged on water savings, Water Minister Tim 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 that 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 principle of due process I've always held as fundamental to our democracy.
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.
They had no hope of doing so when a predetermined outcome was the starting base.
The project was approved by Planning Minister Justin Madden, who promptly stripped planning controls from the Shire of Murrindindi, thus avoiding possible delays associated with consultation with affected parties.
A condition of his approval required the establishment of a community consultative committee. Yet a staggering 12 months later, and when the final pipes are being laid, this committee is still not operational.
The impacts of this project are multi-layered and insidious.
Perhaps its greatest impact is the feeling of powerlessness so many people have experienced.
Who are these people? They are the mum and dad protesters like me. The landowners through whose prized farmland and family homes the pipeline 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 in droves.
They include my friend who was arrested and removed from on her own land for standing 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 astounding that the project could progress so far before being revealed for the fiasco many knew it always was.
How can Premier John Brumby argue that climate change requires us to throw out the old rule-book when it comes to bushfires, but ignore its impact on water availability in the river systems he seeks to loot?
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.
Mr Holding's recent media stunt where he drew a picture on one of the pipes depicting the hands of people in the north of the state reaching out to help those in the south only served to highlight how removed he is from reality.
The north-south pipeline is not a happy picture.
- Jo Knorr lives and farms on the Goulburn River at Yea.
