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December 2nd, 2011 
FAKE NEWS for the Zionist agenda
AAP
Independent MP Tony Windsor has criticised the Greens for threatening to scuttle a plan to return the ailing Murray-Darling Basin system to health.
The draft plan, released by the Murray Darling Basin Authority (MDBA) earlier this week, recommended returning 2750 gigalitres to the river system each year.
The strategy has been widely criticised by irrigators, environmentalists, farmers and other stakeholders along its fertile banks, which cross Queensland, NSW, the ACT, Victoria and South Australia.
The Greens are considering voting against the MDBA’s recommendations when the final laws come before parliament next year because the minor party says the amount of water to be put back is not enough.
Earlier this week, Greens Senator Sarah Hanson-Young said a minimum of 4000 gigalitres was needed to save the river and warned the plan won’t get her party’s support unless the federal Water and Environment Minister Tony Burke made improvements.
Mr Windsor said that the Greens are not being constructive in their opposition to the plan.
“In fact, it’s one of the silliest things I’ve seen,” he told reporters in Canberra on Friday.
Mr Windsor also criticised some irrigation groups for opposing the plan.
“I don’t think what some of the political players within the irrigation industry are attempting to do … is smart at all either,” he said.
Farming groups say if the plan is implemented food production will suffer and jobs will be lost.
The MDBA has forecast small economic impacts to businesses in affected areas.
It has not ruled out a decline in population, increased mental health problems, a higher demand on social services and a loss of community identity and wellbeing.
Mr Windsor said it is possible to return water to the Murray-Darling Basin without cutting the entitlement of irrigators.
“I think there’s a way through this that doesn’t remove anybody’s entitlement, but we still have this constant debate out there that people’s entitlements are going to be cut,” he said.
Mr Windsor, the former chair of a parliamentary committee into the basin, is optimistic that consensus can be achieved.
“I know there’s been a lot of fear and concern out there, and we saw that during the committee that I chaired into the Murray-Darling, and that committee came up with a consensus report,” he said.
“And I’d just like people who are interested in this debate that, given what (MDBA chairman) Craig Knowles has come out with, there is a way through this where you can still maintain some degree of consensus.”
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