TIME FOR A ROYAL COMMISSION
Country Australia is being hollowed out one water buyback at a time, and the people making the decisions have never had to answer for it. That's why we need a Federal Royal Commission into water.
Here's what happens every time another chunk of water is bought back and sent out of our region.
* The work dries up first. Less water means fewer crops in the ground, which means fewer pickers, packers, truckies and farmhands with a reason to stay.
* The value-adding leaves next. Our packing sheds, cotton gins and food processors all need a reliable local supply to keep running, and when the water goes the jobs inside those buildings go with it.
* Local businesses feel it fast. The mechanic, the cafe, the farm supply store and the contractor all rely on a working irrigation economy, so when the farms wind back the whole main street takes the hit.
* Then the town starts to shrink. Families follow the work out of the district, the school roll drops, the footy team struggles for numbers and the shopfronts go dark one by one.
* And nobody can tell us where the water went. It gets traded, moved and profited from, and not one decision-maker in Canberra has ever been put under oath to explain who gained while our communities lost.
These towns grow the food and fibre for the whole nation, and they have earned the right to know the truth.
A Royal Commission is the only thing with the power to follow the water, follow the money and finally hold someone to account.
Back the call.
