THE north-south pipeline may have been switched on, but Plug the Pipe will continue fighting, says NEIL PANKHURST

With the ceremonial switching on of the north-south pipeline by the Premier last week, one could be forgiven for thinking the campaign against the project would be over. But the reality is different.

The project represents many of the flaws of the current government and the division it has propagated across the state.

Plug the Pipe will, in broad terms, continue to highlight deficiencies in the Government's plans and assumptions and apply as much pressure as possible to get accountability.

The Government has created a lot of division and it is important that we highlight the socio-economic impact being felt by rural communities.

The first strategy adopted by the Government, as part of its water plan, was the central region sustainable water strategy.

History shows that despite the Government promoting its extensive consultation process while developing the strategy, it ignored the document once re-elected.

It is critical all Victorians understand the importance of irrigated agriculture to the state's economy and it is disappointing when the Premier and ministers present a message that the state's food producers are wasting water.

Australian farmers have invested significant amounts of money on their farms to become more efficient and unfortunately, governments have not kept pace.

It is little wonder the community is cynical now that the investment is being made.

Mr Brumby often highlights the inequity between the water restrictions faced by Melburnians and northern Victorian towns when speaking of irrigators.

Unfortunately, he neglects to mention that the urban authorities receive their full entitlements before agricultural producers receive a drop.

It is therefore not waste and losses in the irrigation system that are causing restrictions in Melbourne, rather the lack of planning and investment.

The Government has been extremely tardy in preparing audited savings reports for the upgrade works and it is important that the information is subject to appropriate scrutiny.

It must be remembered that it was Mr Brumby who first politicised the project by announcing that the pipe would be constructed and Melbourne would be receiving 75 gigalitres, just prior to this year's election whether or not any savings had been achieved.

The Premier has displayed the arrogance both he and his government have shown several times during the project.

It is astounding that the Premier should say during his speech as water began flowing into sugarloaf reservoir "that it is a great day for the environment."

The very water that was flowing below his feet was water that has been stored in Lake Eildon for the environment, water saved from other projects to improve the health of the Snowy, Murray and Goulburn rivers.

According to the Premier, the pipeline was completed ahead of schedule and on budget.

Yet we still have not seen the business case and the cost didn't alter despite the significant changes to the design of the pipeline and the need to drill through the Great Dividing Range instead of going over the top.

Rather than securing the future of northern Victoria, the Government has created uncertainty.

When arguing its case for deepening the channel in Port Phillip Bay, the Government often spoke of the need to be able to get the huge quantities of exports out of the Port of Melbourne and the largest containerised user of the Melbourne Port is the Victorian dairy co-operative, Murray Goulburn.

This is the same company that has just closed one of its processing facilities in northern Victoria due to the decrease in milk supply in northern Victoria of 1.5 billion litres since 2002.

It will be November 28 before one can really gauge the success of the Plug the Pipe.

However, there is no doubt the group will continue to hold the government to account and demand the scrutiny that is deserved.

  • Neil Pankhurst is a Tongala dairy farmer and Plug the Pipe member