AT A GLANCE
Water harvester to be slugged $3/ML tax.
Tax claimed to be for administration.
$50/year fee on licenced bores and dams.
By MARK PHELPS
LOWER Balonne water harvesters may have scored a victory on one level, but it seems for the Queensland Government revenge is sweetest served cold.
Despite the long awaited Cullen Report which revealed the Lower Balonne is in relatively good health despite Queensland Government claims, Natural Resources Minister Stephen Robertson has chosen to up the ante, slugging water harvesters with a $3/megalitre tax in addition to $50/year fee on licenced cores and dams. The tax – which is claimed only for administration – will impact on an estimated 1200 water harvesters throughout Queensland who extract more than 500ML. However, the $50 annual fee will impacts on tens of thousands of bores and dams across the State.
The decision has left irrigators gob-smacked, who say a $3/ML charge is a ridiculous price to pay for administration.
Smartriver’s spokesman David Carson – an irrigator from Dirranbandi – said while water users were willing to pay a fee, $3/ML appeared to more about milking the system than recognizing the massive investment and contribution irrigation made to rural communities and Queensland as a whole.
“There is not one government dollar tied up in the half a billion dollars worth of infrastructure in the Lower Balonne, Mr Carson said.
“We have continually tried to work with the Minister and the department but there is just an unwillingness to engage on a meaningful level.”
Mr Carson said it had taken years to beat the truth into the Department of Natural Resources.
“It’s time Stephen Robertson said sorry for his bureaucrats refusing to listen or take notice of any of Smartriver’s data,” Mr Carson said. “He needs to admit there’s no immediate need to wind back water allocations, there’s no need for drastic action. Our river is healthy and we now have time to work together – government, irrigators and the community – to ensure communities along the Lower Balonne continue to thrive without adversely impacting on the river that produces their way of life.
“As professor Cullen told the media, the government’s view that the Lower Balonne was severely degraded was a judgment based on set of field samples that were taken at an inappropriate time and delivered a false impression,” Mr Cason said. “Professor Cullen went on to say that it was unfortunate, and all subsequent data revealed that the river does not show any signs of stress.”
AgForce president Larry Acton described the $50 annual fee on bores and dams as the most inhumane decision every made by a government.
“The drought situation is absolutely critical,” Mr Acton said. “To slug people with a charge like this at a time like this is the most inhumane decision I think I have ever heard.”
Balonne saga continues
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AVID Carson (pictured) is one hell of a frustrated man. |
The Dirranbandi cotton grower and grazier just doesn’t know what more he and the water harvesters he represent in the Lower Balonne region can do to better communicate with the Queensland Government.
“We’ve said it for two years and we keep saying it. Sit and let us all work through the issues so we get the best outcome for everyone involved,” Mr Carson said. “We can do this better. We want to work with the Government but every time we think we may be able to make some progress we are just hit over the head."
The $3/megalitre tax introduced by Natural Resources Minister Stephen Robertson was the latest example a stabbing irrigators in the back.
"The tax is ridiculous," Mr Carson said. "How can it
possibly cost $3/ML to administer a license. Queensland either has the most inefficient bureaucracy in Australia or it is simply a tax. All we really know it was introduced without any consultation with he industry."
Not that Lower Balonne water harvesters have taken a backward step in protecting $500 million investment they have make in privately owned infrastructure in the region.
The group embarrassed the Department of Natural Resources when it forced the government to abandon a court case seeking to stop the amalgamation of two water licenses. But it was the ridicule directed at the Beattie Government when its secret plans to close Cubbie Station were revealed which was the most damaging.