Senator Barnaby Joyce from Queensland comes to visit SA River Murray mouth

7.30 pm ABC News Good to see Barnaby Joyce in SA visiting the dairy farmers at Lake Albert near the Murray Mouth. Lake Albert is hyposaline because it has only a narrow one way channel to Lake Alexandra, which presently is fairly fresh water due to 2 years of normal to flood flows of the river. The good news is that the Lake Albert farmers are proposing "engineering works" (yes!) to build a channel from Lake Albert to the Coorong (about 3 kms) in order to get circulation of water and reduce salinity levels in Lake Albert. The SA Premier, Jay Weatherall pooh hoos the idea and wants more environmental flows (more then 2750 GL) to keep the river mouth open all the time.

My opinion is that Jay Weatherall is uninspiring impediment to getting a workable MDBasin plan. He supports the Greens "healthy river" model nonsense which must be rejected. The farmers idea of getting water circulation by having a channel to the Coorong has merit, in fact there should be MUCH more engineering works done to have a viable Lower Lakes estuarine system. The objective should be to maintain a stable water level in the two lakes by opening the barrages during times of inland drought and reduced river water flows.

Just having a channel from Lake Albert to the Coorong I suspect will not greatly reduce the salinity of Lake Albert, since the Coorong is more saline than sea water. There needs to be a means for sea water to enter the lower part of the Coorong and a good circulation maintained. You need a team of hydroengineers to revamp the whole Lower lakes system to optimise the economic benefit to the community. This wont happen with Labor and Greens in effective control of management.

When the Lower lakes has an aquaculture industry producing 10,000 tonnes of fish/shelfish etc annually I would concede that management is pointing in the right direction. The half dozen dairy farms can get their fresh water by pipe line from the Murray River proper at Wellington. Cheers, Allano

Federal Labor and its Renewable Energy Black Money Hole

The Labor Federal Government has created a $10 billion Clean Energy Corporation to fund development of renewable energy projects. It will have a short lifetime when the Coalition becomes Government, ditto the Australian Greenhouse Office responsible for issuing grant monies. The latest is a dodgy company testing out wave energy. A wave operated power station? What a rust bucket their pilot plant is at Newcastle.! The sea is a very CORROSIVE element to deal with and has frequent damaging storms. What a waste of money! Why not build a state of the art COAL-FIRED power station where its needed (and for good measure, disband the Federal Greenhouse Office). It wont be long now when Federal Labor is tossed out on its ear never to be seen again for several decades. Cheers Allano

Water Worries -Why is an eco-model more important then a people-model.

It seems that nothing sensible can be achieved with the Murray-Darling Basin water plan until the South Australia State Government comes to its senses about management of the Lower Lakes. Jay Weatherall rabbits on about the idealistic "Healthy River" model and how MORE than 2750 GL of environmental flows are needed to keep the river mouth open at all times. The whole idea is just eco-religious nonsense.
TV News shows the 1/2 dozen dairy farmers left around Lake Alexandra who rely on the freshwater of the lake for operation and they plead for more environmental flows!... what spin and bunkum. Lateral thinking is required. Completely ignored is the pipeline draw offs for Adelaide's water supply and the Morgan to Whyalla pipeline of 320 kms which allow water flows to sea after being USED by humans. Surely it is possible to build a pipeline of 50 kms or so to supply river water to farm operations around Lake Alexandra for use in DROUGHT TIMES if lake water levels were maintained by sea water derived from opening the barrages? Also, adjacent Lake Albert has always been isolated and more saline than the open ocean. And the very saline Coorong lies beyond the barrages so is not part of the MDBasin. In fact, the WHOLE Lower Lakes system should NOT be included in the Murray Darling Basin, but considered as a separate management region.
There is SO much BS produced by SA Government, and also vital data deliberately ignored, that its not funny. Presently the river water system is in normal to flood conditions and has been so for the past 2 years. There is NO need to further cut water supplies to the irrigaters. They should be storing as much flood water as possible free of charge. Allano

Federal Labor still writhing in anti-carbon idiocy

The rampant idiocy of this Labor Federal Government continues on all fronts. More rumbles are reported of the need to build 12 more submarines to protect us from invasion, to replace the ageing Collins class ones (only one being operational). Why not build Egyptian type pyramids which at least would boost the tourism and quarrying industries? Also talk of replacing the SA Port Augusta coal-fired power station with a solar-gas station like is used in Spain! I don't think we need Spain to guide us into economic ruin, nor are CO2 emissions to be worried about ie, the need to reduce greenhouse gases to go to a low carbon economy is just eco-religious bunkum. We don't need to copy the EU in anything.

The Port Augusta coal-fired power stations have been operational since the 1950's hence are past their used by date and need replacing BUT by a modern high tech coal-fired power station to provide the cheapest electricity. The Leigh Creek coal field needs expanding and other coal fields developed in the region. What is our "Mines Department" doing about it? Has it been replaced by the useless CO2 bean counters in the Climate Change Department of SA State Government? When the Coalition regains Government there will be a great clean out of staff promoting unaffordable and ridiculous Green inspired projects, plus the projects and associated legislation will be consigned to the dustbin. eg RET bill, windfarms, Green Energy Investment Fund etc.

Adios Bob Brown , the Leader of the Green Party in Australia

Bob Brown, the leader of the Australian Green Party is retiring from politics. I wish him a long and enjoyable retirement. The Deputy Leader, Christine Milne, is appointed the new leader. She will find it a difficult job maintaining the present momentum of the Greens which hold the balance of power between Labor and the Coalition. Nationally the Greens poll about 12%. I predict this will slump to 8% by years' end.

Madame Milne says she will devote her leadership to assisting the transition of Australia to a low carbon economy. Thanks for nothing! In my view, a low carbon economy = poverty, whereas a high carbon economy = prosperity. The idea that we must reduce emissions of greenhouse gases to prevent climate change/global warming is bunkum. It is the biggest psuedo-scientific scam ever propagated.

Labors' carbon tax legislation comes into effect on the 1st of July. I am hoping there will be a successful vote of no confidence in PM Julia's awful Labor Government before then!

Murray Darling Basin draft plan under scrutiny today

How hopeless can you get? The pollies and environmentalists annoy me greatly. They can't see the wood for the trees. It is all spin, spin, spin and how does my approach effect my voter support.
Jay Weatherall, Premier for South Australia, insists that SA is getting a raw deal with water and that the proposed 2750 GL (billion litres) environmental flows is not enough to meet environmental needs. (The river basin is presently in flood and has been past year). He threatens to take the matter to the High Court. Peter Owen of the Wilderness Society, insists a minimum of 4000 GL environmental flow is necessary to maintain a "healthy river" and flow out to sea.
The NSW and VIC irrigators don't want to loose more water to the environment (and so to be wasted in South Australia, if it even gets there).
SA Labor Gov has commissioned the Goyder Report on the matter which comes to the predictable conclusion that the MDBasin plan should release much more than 2750GL to the river.
In my opinion, the whole media controversy is a nonsense and I suggest that the idea, or model of a "healthy river" that flows out to sea at the Murray mouth all the time is bunkum, or wishful thinking. It hasn't happened in the past and there is no need to force the river to do it now, to the great detriment of having water restrictions for irrigation further up the watershed during drought times.
The current predicament during drought times (maybe 7 out of 10 years) is the MISMANAGEMENT by the South Australian Government of the Lower Lakes system by maintaining a closure of the barrages, or sea dykes, that prevent the sea from entering Lake Alexander and Albert and restoring a natural estuarine system when there are drought conditions inland. Details of the true water state of the region is admirably exposed by Jennifer Marohasy