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CRAIG COMMENTS |
The barbed wire fence
Wednesday 29 August 2007
At Parliament House in Melbourne recently, the “Plug the Pipe” rally was held in protest of the north-south food bowl pipeline project and the desalination plant in South Gippsland. The right to protest is an incredibly important right in a functioning democracy, but this protest raised my hackles for its divisive and politically motivated agenda.
I went along to the protest to show my support for a group of country people concerned with a government decision to take from one community and give to another. Interbasin transfers of natural resources, like water, are always contentious. The diversion of water from the Thomson and Snowy rivers; the gas and oil from Bass Strait; and the power from the Latrobe Valley have shown that Gippsland has given much for the benefit and prosperity of the state. This has often been to the detriment of the needs of our region, its natural assets and our economy.
We have very little to show for the mining and extraction of our region’s wealth to supply the insatiable demand for power and water and other natural resources of the state. This transfer of wealth from one region to another is something I do not support in principle, but I am also mindful that we are a single nation and these resources belong to all Australians, not just a chosen few.
The reason this protest rally was divisive is that its theme was “go and get your water from somewhere else”, with a number of participants directing the Victorian Government to look at Gippsland.
The political actions of “divide and conquer” may gain votes with the target audience in the north, but it also comes with the risk of alienating other regions. In the past, the tactic of opposition governments that say one thing to one group and offer a different and contrary view to all others may have worked, but with greater scrutiny it is not possible to have a foot each side of the fence.
I am sure most Gippslanders would be disgusted that at this political rally, banners with “Dam the Mitchell River”, “Dam the Barclay” and other similar messages were extremely prominent. Other banners were authorised by the National Party’s state director and this rally was supported by the Liberal Party, National Party and the Victorian Farmers Federation.
It is a great indignity that a rally to send a message to the State Government would result in such an anti-Gippsland and divisive message. I for one will not accept further loss of water from Gippsland and the already fragile Gippsland Lakes system.
