The Forum > Article Comments > Howard is failing the nation on water policy > Comments
Howard is failing the nation on water policy : Comments
By Bruce Haigh, published 8/1/2007The issue of water is held to be important by too many Australians for Howard and Turnbull to get away with crude and superficial spin.
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As it happens we are burying precious agricultural lands under urban sprawl. Catchments are depleted through the historical creation of many thousands of small dams. Rice and cotton are grown depleting our resources which are undervalued to compete on a global market. Desertification which is essentially the real issue behind our water problems rolls on unabated. What governments are doing is disaster control, rationing (allocating) water. The horse has bolted; there had been no buffer in place. Turnbull’s market forces panacea has already failed and has contributed the greatest to water depletion. Cotton, rice, shiney sparkling cars, gardens of deep green lawn, spa’, swimming pools, water wasting dishwashers, our appetite for North European and North Asian vegetables has (a pun) bled us dry.
Robg climate change was already understood when Howard came in he has no excuse. Much of the work could have been undertaken under the guise of Keating’s better cities. One major outstanding aspect of the Howard Government is that it has always operated with a focus on historical social grievances or very short term economic get rich quick programs and not one policy actually effectively plans for the future. An example is the NHT in which Howard dumped his responsibilities to a civil system of entropy. It has always been a Government which had never offered a light at the end of the tunnel. Australia essentially has no future and I see no indication from Rudd that things will improve as he too seems to hold his focus on religion and historical social grievances.