A LOOK at what the key players said at yesterday's Murray Darling Basin draft plan crisis meeting at Griffith.

  • Paul Pierotti, Griffith Chamber of Commerce and Industry president.

There is too much rhetoric, people have become bewildered and confused.

The farming community has been given a sense of there being no opportunity.

There has been a massive effect on investment in Griffith.

Unfortunately a lot of people are scared to speak out as they are emotionally scarred.

Real estate agents and banks won’t talk – the effect on the housing market is just disastrous.

Listings have increased to the point where there are no buyers – there has been a 20 per cent drop in residential values.

The farming and commercial market are far worse, it that’s far damaged it can’t be assessed.

There are 70 major commercial property transactions in Griffith in a normal year.

This year there was one.

An iconic heritage listed site in the main street was put for sale under a tender and not even one application was picked up.

This is happening by stealth, uncertainity has ramped up, water is being stripped away and people are starting to lose hope.

I fear there will be a fire sale, the current rate of listings in Griffith is unsustainable.

The building industry has ground to a halt.

It is a buyers market where houses selling for $500,000-$600,000 two years ago are now selling for $300,000.

Business owners can’t extend their overdrafts unless the bank reviews our equity.

And when they review our equity, we are in trouble.

It’s not all about angry irrigators… but it’s wage earners and business owners who have been completely neglected.

Simon Crean says people are happy with the plan but he must have been talking to Santa.

I don’t know anyone happy with this plan.

  • Allan Haggarty, Griffith, retired solicitor

This has been my home for nearly 50 years and I'm concerned about its future.

I have taken an interest in the legal aspects of the Water Act and draft plan.

From where I sit the basin plan is governed by parameters of the Water Act which favours the environment.

The constitution doesn't give the Federal parliament power over water.

The Act cannot be amended unless the states give their powers over water to the federal government.

I cannot see South Australia agreeing to that at this point in time.

If they did and the government got the amendment through the Lower House, we would be stuck with the Greens dominating the senate.

This is an agricultural area and there is no secondary industry unlike Wagga .

We don't have the army, airforce or a university.

It's arguably worse for the business community because they won't get compensation.

If government's are serious about enticing people to settle in regional Australia, we need progressive, cosmopolitan communities like Griffith.

It is a great example of multiculturalism and the government is at risk of losing it.

  • Jim McGann, retired irrigator and former mayor, Griffith

I was involved in local government for 16 years and president of the Murrumbidgee Valley Water Users group for four years.

I feel for the future of the area - there is no incentive left fo the young people.

That even gets across into the business centre.

We were a thriving centre all my life and it is sad to see this indecision related to water.

I'm passionate about this area and prepared to fight for it.

The draft plan from 12 months ago was a document recycled from 1987 so I threw it in the corner.

General security water users are busy harvesting or planting rice and haven't got time for the consultation.

In the early 1990s, 136 semi trailers carried farm produce in and out of Griffith daily.

That figure now exceeeds 150 and it's at risk.

2012-2013 will be the centenary of irrigation in Griffith and Leeton, and there might be a lot of blood on the ground.

  • Eddie Allen, Griffith, retired irrigation farmer

I came along today to see what is going to happen.

I haven't read the draft plan and only know what I've heard on the radio.

Things haven't changed since we had the meeting in Griffith 13 months ago.

Griffith was put here in the first place for food production and to develop the inland, and now the water is being snatched away.

We should be over the rhetoric and get down to business.

  • Barnaby Joyce, Shadow Minister for Water

Yesterday the Murray Darling Basin Authority released the plan and today we are in Griffith because you have so much on the line.

We have to find out your views to negotiate and bargain on your behalf in Canberra.

You feed our nation and there is never a more honourable occupation than feeding people.

This is bigger than the farmers in Griffith, there are about 2.1 million people who live in the basin.

This is about us.

We will not fall for the trap of saying the (2750 gigalitres) is too high, too low or just right.

We have to be more particular and ask them to do the homework they have not done.

I want to be able to look in the index, see under G the future for my children in Griffith.

I want to know what environmental assets they will water around Griffith.

  • Brian Savage, Widgelli, rice grower

I have been farming for 44 years.

It's going to get to the stage where the rest of us won't be able to afford to pay the delivery entitlements.

My wife and I paid $34,000 last year and we never turned a wheel.

Where do we go from here - the people in the cities don't realise what is actually happening.

We have got these fixed costs on top of us and someone's got to pay them.

It comes back to the farmer - it's not going to be long and the whole lot of us will be gone.

It's going to gradually grind away and the costs will keep going up.

  • Noel Hicks, retiree, former Member for Riverina, Griffith

The government is supposed to be looking after our interests but they are going to destroy us in one foul swoop.

The government is telling us to pack up our traps, no compensation and live on the coast.

The normal people working for a living have got nowhere to go.

This is going to be a war and many battles fought over it.

Under our mayor and leaders of the community, we have to rally.

We can't be all going off on tangents, we have to be united because this is a big battle.

We have to go down and stand on the front porch of Canberra.

This is going to be a big battle and let's get on with it.