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Tuesday, 14 September 2004 The Ricegrowers’ Association of Australia Inc today welcomed the announcement by the Coalition of $2 billion over 5 years under the Australia Water Fund. “This is a major step forward in implementing the National Water Initiative (NWI) which has been the number one issue for the Association over the past 12 months” said RGA President Laurie Arthur “As such we have requested all the major parties to commit to implementing the NWI including the funding necessary to achieve NWI objectives. The Coalition have demonstrated that they are serious about a national vision for water that seeks to improve river health and our regional communities and industries” Mr Arthur noted that the ALP, Democrats and Greens had not released policies specifically related to the implementation of NWI and that the RGA looked forward to their contributions on this matter. “We understand the position of the other major parties in relation to The Living Murray initiative however this is but one part of the NWI” said Mr Arthur. The ALP and Democrats have committed to the return of 1500GL to the Murray whilst the Greens have supported the return of 3000GL. Mr Arthur said that while these volumes have been targeted at improving river health they appear to have been formulated in the absence of any meaningful independent and social and economic information. “We are in agreement on the issue of improving the health of our rivers however we need to do this whilst providing opportunities for our farmers and regional communities to prosper. This is why we support the measures proposed by the Coalition as they are based on improving water infrastructure, management and the creation of water savings to achieve environmental outcomes”. CONTACT |
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