For this reason, Southern Riverina Irrigators and the chairs of our landholder associations have combined in an effort to help those who are uncertain about how to vote.
Firstly, shareholders need to be aware that they will be receiving a voting pack from Vero Voting. Inside the pack will be instructions and your pin number.
However, we have been made aware that it can still be a difficult process, and for shareholders with multiple votes it is more complex.
It is disappointing that voting has already opened and the voting packs have not arrived, but unfortunately that is out of our control.
We encourage all shareholders to cast their vote or votes to ensure they have a say in the future direction of our company.
There may be a lot out of our control at the moment, but the one thing we can all do as shareholders is use our voting right to determine the leadership of the company we own.
So please, make sure you reach out to SRI and the LHA chairs for support to cast your vote or votes — and make them count!
If you need assistance with this process, please phone Sophie Baldwin on 0427 503 318.
— Darcy Hare, deputy chair
Southern Riverina Irrigators
Environmental flows not helping Goulburn
The article in Country News on September 7 shows just how out of touch with reality the Goulburn Broken Catchment Management Authority is when it comes to environmental flows and their effect on the Goulburn River.
To say the flows deposit seed-rich sediment on the bank, moves sediment from the river bed and improves the habitat for fish, etc, is not very obvious to me.
When I walk or fish the river all I see is a badly eroded bank, exposed tree roots and a muddying of the water. These flows do not get high enough to inundate the anabranches and wetlands as claimed.
The entire environmental policy is based on the premise that the river carried much more water prior to settlement than it does now because of the construction of dams. I think this is a wrong assumption.
The Murray Goulburn catchment prior to settlement was heavily timbered therefore absorbing the rainfall except in heavy rainfall periods, consequently very little run-off occurred. This is obvious even today in timbered areas compared to cleared areas.
Old paintings and even early photographs of the river show a gently sloping, well-grassed bank and no sign of the erosion we see today. The early settlers and explorers crossed the river in many places with stock and wagons which would be impossible to do today.
The wetlands and swamps like Reedy have the remains of large red gum trees in the middle of the swamp, which indicates they grew there because the flooding was intermittent, not continually under water as it is today being topped up artificially.
The whole premise the policy is based on — high river flows in the past — I think is wrong. Have a look at the damaged banks these flows are causing today for it to be obviously a mistaken policy.
— John Starritt
Shepparton
Member support vital for legal fight
Back in February, we asked our landholders to participate in a voluntary levy and thanks to you all, Southern Riverina Irrigators generated about $230,000.
This money was critical in our ongoing crusade to highlight the practice of floodplain harvesting.
The voluntary levy allowed us to engage the services of Bret Walker SC, and his report in the upcoming NSW upper house inquiry confirms SRI’s position that floodplain harvesting has never been legal — it does not sit within the legal limits in the Water Act 2007 and the Murray-Darling Basin Plan 2012, and if NSW increases volumes of take through water sharing plans, it is a direct contravention of federal legislation.
Slattery and Johnson have been consistently working on legality of floodplain harvesting including cap. They have showed the distortion and manipulation by departments at they attempt to license above cap and along the way uncovered an increase in storage in the north from 574 Gl in 1994 to 1395 Gl in 2020.
The Murray-Darling Basin Assoication is on course to accredit increases to allow enormous volumes of water to be licensed for floodplain harvesting; making them compensable if they are ever cancelled.
SRI members will be paying for FPH licensing twice; once via a reduction in allocation and second via taxes.
SRI has been fighting for a return of water since the FPH review began in 2018.
The culmination of our work and determination has resulted in the upper house FPH inquiry, which we are comfortable will end the debate and see water flowing to the south again.
As of September 14, NSW Murray general security sits on 30 per cent with full dams, while in previous years we would be clapping our hands on 100 per cent.
Without access to water we are licensed and metered to receive, our businesses, our community and our environment are directly threatened.
The class action is gathering momentum and will prove additional success for our region as we see some changing of the rules already — but not all and not quick enough.
We have a long fight and at times it will be an expensive one, but your support is integral for our success and with continued co-operation and focus, we will see water return to NSW Murray general security.
— Sophie Baldwin, executive officer
Southern Riverina Irrigators
