RSS Feed
December 15th, 2011 
FAKE NEWS for the Zionist agenda <!–
Angry residents in the New South Wales town of Griffith vented their fury over the updated Murray Darling Basin Plan. The authority’s chairman Craig Knowles, the Federal Water Minister Tony Burke and the Opposition Leader Tony Abbott were there. It follows similar angry scenes held in the same town last year.
–>
MATT PEACOCK: Thousands of angry farmers and residents have vented their fury today at the Murray Darling Basin plan.
The Murray Darling Basin Authority chairman Craig Knowles and the Federal Water Minister Tony Burke faced them down at a meeting in Griffith.
The meeting lasted more than four-and-a-half hours, after being extended to accommodate the large number of people wanting to have their say.
Many locals said the plan will kill their town.
Our environment reporter Conor Duffy was in Griffith for the meeting and he’s joining me now in the studio.
Conor it was a very lively meeting from all accounts.
CONOR DUFFY: It was, it was quite an extraordinary thing to see Matt. We got there quite early and about 5,000 people showed up, which might be a small amount for a gathering in a city but when you consider the size of Griffith and the whole population of the place is only 16,000, that’s almost a third of the town showed up.
Most of the businesses in town shut down for the morning, so that they could get along and so that their employees could get along.
When I got there they were handing out black armbands and basically trying to set the day out more as a funeral than a meeting and I spoke with one of the organisers who was putting on black armbands. Her name was Barbara Penninga and she’s from the Griffith Community Centre and this is what she had to say.
BARBARA PENNINGA: We are in mourning and we are united and this is a sad day for us. So we are all together here to say no, don’t do this to us, we will die.
MATT PEACOCK: So how was the reception of Craig Knowles, the head of the Murray Darling Basin Authority?
CONOR DUFFY: Well this is a very difficult day for Craig Knowles. Of all the meetings that he’s got to go to, and he is travelling right around the country, this was always going to be one of the toughest. From the minute he walked in there he was heckled.
There was a lot distrust in the town of Griffith and people say that they’ve learnt that Craig Knowles and the authority have learnt nothing since those famous images of the plan being burnt in Griffith about 14 months ago.
Now Craig Knowles tried to explain to the people of Griffith that he’s got to accommodate the people in all the Basin states – that’s Queensland, Victoria, New South Wales, South Australia and the ACT – not just Griffith and here’s how he tried to explain some of the differing views on the basin plan.
CRAIG KNOWLES: Just as examples, you’ve got the deputy premier of this state saying very clearly if we don’t get what we want we’ll be out of the process. You’ve got
(loud applause)
CRAIG KNOWLES: You’ve got the Premier of South Australia
(boos)
CRAIG KNOWLES: who also has to represent his community, that 4,000 or a High Court challenge.
MATT PEACOCK: So Craig Knowles, a pretty hot reception, but also one for the Federal Water Minister Tony Burke. There weren’t just black armbands, there were coffins that they weren’t asked to jump in.
CONOR DUFFY: That’s right, it was very heavy Matt. The protesters interrupted the meeting and they came in and they dragged a coffin and they put it right behind Tony Burke and someone shouted out “throw the mongrel in there”.
So, you can imagine for the Water Minister it was quite a difficult day. Even Tony Abbott applauded his courage in showing up at the meeting and he said, you know, a lot of you would be surprised that I came but he said that he needs to go to the places where it’s going to be most difficult.
And after being told to sit down and go away and get in the coffin, here’s what he had to say, suggesting that there could be some changes where the plan finally makes it into law.
TONY BURKE: What numbers are in that, what the actual content of that is, when we get to that final plan will be driven heavily by the full range of consultation which occurs, including here and including the many communities where there are wildly different views.
But throughout the basin we have a situation where we have not had a national plan for it ever. A river system doesn’t respect state boundaries and I want to see a situation where a decision that has been hanging around over the heads of communities, including irrigation communities, for decades and decades and decades gets resolved next year.
MATT PEACOCK: Well that was the Federal Water Minister Tony Burke. The Opposition Leader Tony Abbott was also there. He said it was a memorable meeting but he was treated as something of a hero.
CONOR DUFFY: That’s right. If Tony Burke was the most unpopular man in the room then Tony Abbott was the most popular; he actually got a standing ovation after his speech. However I did have a quick chat with him and I pressed him quite heavily on whether or not he would agree to lowering the cuts in the Griffith area and there’s been no firm commitments at all from the Coalition on that.
MATT PEACOCK: Conor Duffy, our environment reporter, thanks for that.
Views: 0
Posted in 
Tags: 
