“If we don’t act, it could threaten our iconic Aussie plants and animals, our food supply, and affect the drinking water of more than three million Australians,” the advertisement says.
VFF Water Council chair Andrew Leahy said the advertisement ignored 30 years of water recovery for the environment, adding up to about 3000 Gl, much of which has come from irrigators.
He said it also ignored the impact on food production of over-recovery of water in the face of a scare campaign.
Federal Member for Nicholls Sam Birrell has slammed the advertisement as an attempt to justify the destructive water buybacks legislated by the Albanese Government.
Mr Birrell said the video advertisement, which is currently running in Nicholls, used emotive language and doomsday scenarios to attempt to justify the Labor Government’s plan to harm regional communities through water buybacks as part of the new Murray-Darling Basin Plan.
“This advertisement is simplistic, deluded, misleading, partisan and intends to justify the destruction of agriculture in Australia,” Mr Birrell said.
Former Speak Up campaigner Shelley Scoullar said it was difficult for governments to engender trust when they were not entirely truthful.
“This week I have seen, on numerous occasions, the misleading Australian Government television advertisement, paid for with our taxes, promoting the Murray-Darling Basin Plan,” she said.
“It actually makes me quite angry every time I see the advertisement, because I know the narrative is false.
“While I acknowledge a plan was needed to protect rivers in the basin, it is not accurate to say the nation’s food supply could be threatened ‘if we don’t act’.
“Quite the opposite; the basin plan is threatening food security by not effectively balancing farming and environmental needs.
“Of course the government doesn’t tell us that the basin plan is significantly increasing flood risks for many communities and is exacerbating the damage to our rivers from European carp by providing ideal breeding conditions.
“It also continues to avoid admitting that storing massive volumes of water in Upper Murray dams is of no help whatsoever to solving issues with the Darling/Baaka River, where most of the environmental problems exist.”
