Shadow Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry, John Cobb writes:
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John Cobb
The Rudd Government’s war on Regional Australia is intensifying with the news that the Rudd Government has purchase 240 gig litres of water from the Twynam Group for $303 million.
Prime Minister Kevin Rudd today announced the Government had bought almost 240 gigalitres of water rights – the single largest purchase of water for the environment in Australia’s history – from Twynam Agricultural Group.
The deal is worth $303 million and dwarfs all previous water buy-outs, taking the total amount of water rights purchases to 297 gigalitres. The Twynam purchase is equivalent to half the water Sydney uses each year.
I am appalled that not only is my electorate being hit again by the Rudd Government’s attack on regional communities, but astonishingly there are no guarantees that any of the $303 million of taxpayers money Twynam’s has just pocketed will even stay in Australia.
The Rudd Government $23 billion cash splash was supposed to ‘stimulate’ to such an extent that even dead people were lining up to get it.
Yet here we have the Rudd Government ripping 240 gigalitres of water out of regional communities which has the potential to create hundreds of jobs in regional Australia, grow thousands of tonnes of food and fibre to feed people and permanently stimulate the economy.
The Rudd Government is hell-bent on turning the current climatic drought into a permanent Rudd made drought.
Perhaps the most frightening aspect of this sale is that taxpayers have just paid an Argentinean company $303 million and that money could end up being spent off shore at a time we need resources and funds being invested in Regional Australia.
The Australian economy has just taken a double hit, not only are we permanently losing productive capacity, jobs and food security, $303 million could be shifted offshore to Argentina.
The Minister for Agriculture, Tony Burke has shown yet again he lacks the ticker to defend his Portfolio.
No wonder on a recent farmonline poll over 60% of respondents rated his time as Minister for Agriculture as terrible or poor.
At this rate if this phantom Minister refuses to stand up for his portfolio he won’t have any Agriculture constituents left.
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