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Mike Rann: The biggest River in Australia, the most important life blood of our Nation for agriculture and also for drinking water, has been basically mismanaged for a century because it was run as if it was somehow in separate bits, with different jurisdictions, run by different states.
Finally, after decades of wrangling and in-fighting, the leaders of Australia came together and backed South Australia’s plan for the River to be run by an independent commission rather than another group of politicians.
Karlene Maywald: Next time we find ourselves in a drought like we are at the moment, we’ll have a much, much more coordinated approach to how we manage the water across the Basin.
Kevin Rudd: The bottom line is this - if we fail to act on climate change, we are condemning great river systems like the Murray-Darling to an entirely perilous future.
I can't make it rain. The Premier of South Australia can't make it rain. Therefore we've got to deal responsibly as a national community, as an international community, to act on climate change. Otherwise you're burying your head in the sand. We don't intend to do that.
For communities like this, where you've got so many good farmers, and local communities who are affected by this, is to take practical action.
Karlene Maywald: Firstly, it’s about securing the water supply to the communities around the Lower Lake.
There’ll be pipelines built to the Narrung Community, to the Raukkan Community, to the Poltalloch Peninsula that’ll supply stock and domestic water. There will be irrigation pipelines that will be built to Langhorne Creek and to Currency Creek and there’ll also be a domestic supply to the Langhorne Creek Community.
There’s two components of the package that will benefit the Riverland, the first is an industry renewal package, it’s a $190million towards helping to invigorate and rejuvenate our irrigation districts.
The other part of the package is about securing quality and more secure water supply for irrigators who currently pump water off back-waters. So there’s $100million that will be provided for moving and relocating pumps so that we can better manage the River environment and those wetlands.
Mike Rann: Re-engineer the River, to make it much more efficient, to stop wastage, to bring more water down the River and also to buy-back licences.
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