Politicians to adhere to our Constitutional rights to water

Politicians to adhere to our Constitutional rights to water

Started
27 November 2019
Petition to
The Honourable Speaker and Members of The House of Representatives
Signatures: 941Next goal: 1,000
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Why this petition matters

Started by Kathleen Lewins

We would respectfully call to your attention the plight of the farmers/grazers that are downstream from the Darling River, and in particular the dam that has been erected to stem the flow of water to the cotton grown at Cubby Station, and as such, is a deliberate act to depriving land owners downstream of the water, that they and their stock desperately need. 
The station's permits to divert and store more than 500,000 megalitres of water - enough to fill Sydney Harbour, it upsets downstream river users in New South Wales, Victoria and South Australia. As such,  it is in our humble opinion they are in breach of Section 100 of our Commonwealth Constitution, which reads:
The Commonwealth shall not, by any law or regulation of trade or commerce, abridge the right of a State or of the residents therein to the reasonable use of the waters of rivers for conservation or irrigation,
Are we to understand, that should you fail to take a stand, and ensure that everyone downstream from said station, has their entitled share of the water, that you support the Station, and are therefore in breach of Section 100 along with them.
This is a great injustice to the people down stream of Cubby Station at a time of catastrophic drought.  Giant Murray Cod are dying in the lower Darling, not to mention the crop’s, cattle, and men who in desperation have taken their own lives. The Cotton Corporations are using precious water for a cash crop, Clearly the water sharing plans for the Murray Darling Basin Plan are failing and apparently are only benefiting the Cotton Industry…and so we call upon you to insure that:
Section 100 of Our Commonwealth of Australia Constitution (1901) is followed to the letter insuring that landowners living downstream of Cubby Station have access to the water they are entitled to Meanwhile….The Australia Institute report shows that 1700 gigalitres of water was wasted by flooding the Murray system, which would have been enough to provide an allocation to Southern Riverina dairy farmers, that’s almost the equivalent of 2 Sydney Harbours full of life saving water.
You are failing in your duty to abide by our Constitution and as such the federal government is allowing wealthy traders to reap enormous profits at the expense of farmers who can’t make ends meet.
The MDBP has put and continues to put a nail in most of our Farmers coffins. The drought and your mismanagement of our most precious commodity may have been averted if you were to adhere to our basic rights to water under our Constitution. Towns like Finley are suffering with school numbers dropping as families move away. Not only is it barbaric to deny farmers water in the rivers running past their properties, it’s Un-Australian, and Un-Constitutional.  We would also call your attention to Section 109 of the Commonwealth Constitution of Australia being:
When a law of a State is inconsistent with a law of the Commonwealth,
the latter shall prevail, and the former shall, to the extent of the inconsistency, be invalid.

We await your answer

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Signatures: 941Next goal: 1,000
Support now
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Decision makers

  • The Honourable Speaker and Members of The House of Representatives