I watched Four Corners last night, only because it dealt with the dog's breakfast that politicians of left and right have made of the Murray Basin and water trading. A bloody disgrace is the only way to describe it, with billions of taxpayer dollars going to private pirates who have nothing to do with the production of food or the environment. Some of them have never set foot in Australia. Even actual farmers who have benefited from taxpayer largesse are exposing the sorts and waste - of water as well as money - that our unsavoury politicians are responsible for.

Let's see if the ABC is as influential as it thinks it is, and something is done about it. It would be a good idea for water once again be treated as an essential utility, for the benefit of Australia, not big business.

Cotton & the money made from it are at the root of this, implemented by greed !

China is using Australian water to grow Chinese cotton, which it manufactures in China into clothing to be sold to consumers in Australia at an enormous profit. It takes 1500 kg of water to grow 1 kg of raw cotton! The Chinese have been stealing water from the Murray-Darling Basin to irrigate their crops.

This resulted in very little water being available to flush the Darling River of nitrate fertilisers entering it from the watersheds in southern Queensland and northern NSW. Why do you think those millions of fish died around Menindee? Excessive fertilisers gave rise to eutrophication producing algal blooms that depleted oxygen in the water below levels needed for the fish to survive. If water hadn't been siphoned off for cotton production and used instead to flush fertilisers out of the river system all of those fish would never have perished.

And the politicians and bureaucrats and leaders of the business community in Australia have been letting it happen because they are in the pocket of the Chinese.

One of China's biggest exports to countries like Australia is environmental degradation! And as one Chinese business woman in Australia was overheard saying: 'Aren't those Australians dumb!' Yes lady, they sure are!

I'm a food before environment sort of person when it comes to water, but we must look after the environment as well. The silliest thing about the current mess is that there is LESS water going back into to the environment than ever before! The environmental blah is a lie.

It is verging on criminal to be growing cotton or rice anywhere in Australia, given the regular and natural droughts we experience.

individual and Mr 0,
This is NOT about cotton. I suggest you watch the 4 Corners episode, which is repeated at 1pm today. It's also repeated late tomorrow evening, as well as being available on iView, and I think it will also be shown later this week on channel 24.

And if cotton's the most lucrative crop (when the cost of water is included), why shouldn't the farmers grow it?

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ttbn,
Why do you think big business should be excluded from irrigation farming?

>It is verging on criminal to be growing cotton or rice anywhere in Australia
>given the regular and natural droughts we experience.
Now you're just being stupid! In much of northern Australia the monsoon comes without fail.
But even in the Murray Darling Basin, the statement is complete rubbish because farmers can react to the conditions, and not sow cotton or rice if it's dry. I remember hearing in the last drought that the number of MDB farmers who'd planted rice that year was just two – and they'd done so because they'd calculated that they could make more money per megalitre of water used from rice than from other crops.

Dear ttbn,

What most people keep overlooking is that Australia is the driest continent on the planet. We need all the water we can get and shouldn't be giving it away to China which doesn't care what happens to the Australian environment.

Also there is another export of China that is having a devastating effect on the Australian environment: an invasive species of homo sapiens that will do even more damage to the environment than the rabbit and the cane toad.

An interesting fact: The sustainable human population of the natural Australian environment is only around 8 million. Except for a few small areas like SW Western Australia, the soil is unsuitable for agriculture: most of the nutrients are in the vegetation and there is only several years of available usage before the vegetation has to be replenished enough for another growing season. We have overshot the population limit by 17 million and the politicians and business community want to keep bringing in more cashed up Chinese to keep the economy afloat. As that Chinese woman said: 'Aren't the Australians dumb!'