Editorial:
Rein in the eco vandals

We all know we cannot live without water, but it would seem governments 
have only just recently discovered this momentous fact. The move by the NSW 
Carr Government to stop irrigators taking water from the Barwon-Darling 
River in north-west NSW is an extremely late response to a catastrophe in 
the making, and serves to highlight the cause of the problems besetting our 
rivers and the environment in general.

A crackdown by government on water usage in the state's north-west should 
have been implemented at least ten years ago. And what is happening to the 
environment in that small area in NSW is a microcosm of the crisis-hit 
river and water systems Australia-wide.

In this case, the cotton monopoly has been taking massive amounts of water 
from the system for more than 20 years. When their water licence 
allocations were used up, they just went and acquired more licences, 
whether they were legally entitled or not. When this was not possible, they 
simply stole the water. This situation was allowed to continue with almost 
no intervention by government authorities.

Now, 1,500 irrigators have been prevented from any new water extractions 
and irrigation works must cease operation, with those currently under 
construction to be halted. The alarm bells were set off by the NSW State of 
the Environment Report, from the state's Environment Protection Authority. 
The report points to serious river degradation, the result of excessive 
irrigation practices. Up to seven million hectares of the Murray-Darling 
basin are at risk of salination, freshwater ecosystems are "inadequately 
protected" and there are hardly any recovery plans for the 680 animals and 
land plants listed as endangered.

Furthermore the Report found that 150,000 hectares of land in NSW is being 
cleared each year.

The signs were increasingly there for all to see during the 1990s. In 1996, 
for instance, a leaked confidential report to the NSW Department of Land 
and Water Conservation revealed that 150 billion litres of water taken out 
of the Darling River system contributed to the collapse of the river's 
banks along a 2,000 kilometres stretch.

The report found there was a strong link between the structural damage and 
the rapid falls in water levels due to massive amounts of water being 
pumped to irrigate cotton. Was the cotton monopoly hit with massive fines 
for this environmental vandalism? Were they forced to close down their 
operations and pay for the restoration of the river? No, it was business as 
usual.

The message is clearer than ever — rein in the greedy eco vandals and 
reverse the cycle of destruction.

Oil and the national interest

The Howard Government is making some minor "concessions" to parts of its 
economic polices, maneuvering in the face of a backlash at the coming 
federal election. This is why Prime Minister Howard has been on the 
campaign trail pleading that his hands are tied on petrol prices. Howard 
claims that the only way to bring down petrol prices is to bring down world 
oil prices. This is simply not true. It is the government's commitment to 
globalisation and with it, its abandonment of Australia's national 
interest, which have allowed petrol prices to rise, to a dollar a litre in 
some areas.

Australia is an oil producer and exporter. It is rich in natural gas, crude 
oil, LPG and condensate light crude, a by-product of natural gas. But all 
these resources are in the hands of the profit hungry corporations. So it 
was that last year, when the cost to consumers was climbing, the major oil 
giants such as Mobil, BP-Amoco and Texaco, recorded record quarterly 
profits.

The fact is the government does not have the political will to change the 
situation. They have sold the country out to the transnational 
corporations, and one of the many outcomes of this sell-out is rising 
petrol prices. Nor will the ALP change this state of affairs, backsliding 
as they are from even their own pretence at being an "alternative".