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Water - National News - Sept 2008 |
Australian Capital Territory; New South Wales; Northern Territory; Queensland; South Australia; Tasmania; Victoria; Western Australia
23/09/08 Birds of a feather in trouble together, and the waders most of all
11/09/08 Buyback may give billions of litres to rivers Peter Ker The Age
Water State 02/09/08 Study raps state's farm water caps, Royce Millar The Age Feature our highlighting
Chee Chee Leung , The Age
A large wading bird whose numbers are falling. It breeds in Russia and migrates to Australia for ther summer. Photo: Dean Ingwersen
THE PLIGHT of Australia's wading birds has been highlighted in a new study of the worldwide decline in common birds.
According to the BirdLife International report, the population of these resident wading birds has fallen by 81% in just a quarter of a century.
Of the common European birds, 45% are in decline, and 20 common North American species have more than halved in number in the past 40 years.
These are some of the dramatic losses revealed in the State of the world's birds report, released yesterday by BirdLife International, a network of conservation organisations.
BirdLife's chief executive, Mike Rands, said: "Birds provide an accurate and easy-to-read environmental barometer, allowing us to see clearly the pressures our current way of life are putting on the world's biodiversity."
More than 150 species have disappeared since the year 1500.
One in eight species is now at risk of worldwide extinction, and 190 bird species are critically endangered.
Intensification of agriculture and fishing, invasive species, and logging are key threats for birds, but Dr Rands says human-induced climate change may turn out to be the most serious stress of all.
Global warming has already caused significant changes in the migration patterns of birds in Australia, and the report notes it is "likely to have a deleterious impact" on many Australian birds. It says species that call islands or low-lying coastal areas their home, such as the critically endangered orange-bellied parrot, will be threatened by rising seas.
Meanwhile, inappropriate fire control is a major threat for almost half of Australia's nationally threatened birds, especially those in heathland and Mallee habitats.
Birds Australia's Dean Ingwersen said the new report demonstrated the urgent need to protect the country's most endangered birds, such as Victoria's helmeted honeyeater.
The Federal and NSW governments last night bought the 91,000-hectare Toorale Station, located in north-west NSW.
Photo: Rick Stevens
Peter Ker The Age
September 11, 2008
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THE fight to return water to the Murray-Darling river system received a major boost last night when the Rudd Government swooped on a massive rural property just hours before it was due to be auctioned.
The Commonwealth and NSW governments reached an agreement with Clyde Agriculture for the purchase of Toorale Station late last night, in a move that could return billions of litres to the river system each year.
Located at the junction of the Darling and Warrego rivers in north-western NSW, the 91,000-hectare cotton station was estimated by conservationists to be holding up to 20 billion litres of water and to have extracted about 200 billion litres last summer.
It remained unclear last night what price the property fetched, but Australian Conservation Foundation spokeswoman Amy Hankinson said the purchase was a key element in returning the river system to health.
"We are absolutely delighted that NSW and the Commonwealth have taken up this opportunity and are working together to get the Murray-Darling back to good health," she said.
"It is a clear reflection the Commonwealth is listening to the community."
Toorale, located about 70 kilometres from the town of Bourke, has six dams and access to 40 kilometres of riverbank on the Warrego and Darling rivers.
It was one of six massive properties the ACF last month urged the Rudd Government to buy, including Darling Farms, which remains on the market.
Toorale was scheduled to be auctioned at a hotel in Sydney this morning at 11am.
The sale puts the Rudd Government at odds with the federal Opposition and shadow water ministers from around the nation, who met in Sydney yesterday and jointly argued that the buyback of rural properties should be suspended until the socio-economic impact and environmental objectives of the buyback plan were made clear.
Federal Opposition water spokesman John Cobb said Toorale was a highly productive property, and its closure as a working farm could have serious implications for the economy of nearby towns such as Bourke.
He said buying Toorale would not save the ailing lower lakes of the Murray, and that much of the water would be lost in transmission as it flowed down the river.
The Rudd Government has promised to spend $3 billion buying back water entitlements and properties in the Murray-Darling Basin in a bid to revive the ailing river system.
Royce Millar
September 2, 2008
VICTORIA'S job market, economy and embattled northern rivers are all suffering as a result of State Government-backed restrictions on water trading among farmers, a confidential Federal Government study has found.
A report for Water Minister Penny Wong's department, obtained by The Age, has found that the 4% cap on the buying and selling of water rights is costing cash-strapped farmers $19 million and the state economy almost $6 million, as well as 40 potential jobs.
It is also a "severe constraint" on the ability of the Federal Government and others to purchase water for the rivers and wetlands of the southern Murray-Darling basin.
Its findings are embarrassing for a State Government that prides itself on a free-market agenda but has championed a cause dismissed by many critics as old-fashioned agrarian socialism.
The report was seized on yesterday by environment groups that have been pushing to lift the cap to free up water for the environment, and what they describe as more "high value" agriculture.
Environment Victoria's chief executive, Kelly O'Shanassy, said it showed that the Government's opposition to lifting the water usage cap in the Murray-Darling Basin was costing jobs, restricting economic gain, and undermining the health of our major rivers. The August report by Hyder Consulting says the cap has prevented many farmers from selling their water entitlements and, in some cases, getting off the land altogether.
It says that in the 2007-08 irrigation season, the 4% cap was reached in seven out of the 10 districts in northern Victorian.
A total of almost 7.4 billion litres of water rights worth $19 million could not be sold.
The report says the estimates of the cap's economic downsides are probably understated as they do not account for farmers not even trying to sell, because the cap in their district has been reached.
Under water-trading rules, irrigating farmers are free to sell their legal right to extract water from rivers and streams. They can also trade their yearly allocation. But a cap applied through the southern Murray Darling region restricts such trade to just 4% of a district's overall entitlement. It is intended to avert an exodus of drought-stricken farmers and prop up struggling irrigation communities.
Victoria successfully opposed a federal bid to scrap the cap at the July Council of Australian Governments meeting.
Under a compromise, the cap will be lifted to 6% late next year.
The consultant's report calls instead for the cap to be phased out completely by 2014, with the first change, to 6%, in January.
Yesterday Victorian Water Minister Tim Holding defended the Government's position. "Despite pressure from the Commonwealth and other states, Victoria has been able to ensure the 4% cap remains," he said.