Mond

Monday, 7 August 2006

MOKOAN IRRIGATORS WELCOME McGAURAN SUPPORT

Irrigators dependent on Lake Mokoan have welcomed the strong support of the Federal Minister for Agriculture, Peter McGauran, for the maintenance of current level of security of supply of water in the event that Lake Mokoan is decommissioned.

Mr McGauran met with a delegation of irrigators during his visit to Shepparton last week and heard irrigators’ grave concerns about the future of the Broken River Irrigation System if the Victorian Government goes ahead with the decommissioning of Lake Mokoan.

Bill Sykes, National Member for Benalla and fierce advocate of retaining the current security of supply of water to irrigators, organised the meeting with Mr McGauran by a delegation led by Wayne Spinks, an irrigation farmer from Goorambat.

Mr Spinks said, “Mr McGauran was very supportive of our call for an independent assessment of the current security of supply of water. He well understood the impact of a drop in the level of water security from 97% to 91% (which the Bracks Government is offering) on high value agricultural production.

Mr Spinks said that he was very pleased with Mr McGauran’s re-affirmation that any Federal Government support of the decommissioning of Lake Mokoan was conditional on the Victorian Government honouring it’s commitments to maintain security of supply to irrigators and not to impose a level of charges which is above that which would otherwise apply, and compliance with statutory requirements such as under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999.

The Australian Government will be considering these conditions during the Investment Plan process.

Irrigators are pleased that given there was a debate about what is the current level of security of supply of water Mr McGauran supported the commonsense solution of having the matter resolved by an independent assessor.

Mr Spinks concluded, “All we want is justice for the Broken Valley. We need to retain current security of supply of water to continue our move into high value agricultural production. We are very pleased that the Federal Government through Mr McGauran is going to stand by us in our fight for justice.”

Media contact: Bill Sykes (03) 5762 2100 or 0427 624 989