SOUTH West Queensland farmer Chris Lamey says he has no qualms about hosting controversial Greens Senator Sarah Hanson-Young last week.
Mr Lamey, who has been involved in a long running battle over water flows on his property Coomonga at Toobeah, said he was keen to show any politician who was willing to listen the “disastrous realities” of water management in the northern Murray-Darling Basin.
Mr Lamey will also meet with South Australian Senator Rex Patrick tomorrow (Wednesday). Senator Patrick, who replaced Nick Xenophon, will visit a number of South West Queensland properties including Cubbie Station at Dirranbandi.
Mr Lamey said after meeting Senator Hanson-Young in Goondiwindi, they inspected his own property Coomonga before looking at the nearby Norman Farming operation Mobandilla, and irrigated crops on Booberoi, and the Bungunya “oasis in the desert” Tenteranna.
“I don’t agree with Sarah’s politics and I certainly don’t agree with the Greens’ position that cotton should not be grown in Australia,” Mr Lamey said, who also grows irrigated cotton at Mungindi.
We just won’t have communities if there is no water to sustain them.
- Chris Lamey, Coomonga, Toobeah
“But she is an elected representative in the Australian Parliament and I am very willing to show anyone what is really happening in the upper basin. Surely it is better that people are properly informed than continuing to bury our heads in the sand.”
Mr Lamey said too many landholders and their communities were being decimated by a poorly managed system, despite the release of the Murray–Darling Basin Plan.
“It’s a problem only made worse by different state laws and the overriding mentality that crops come before people,” Mr Lamey said.
“In these extreme drought conditions the priority surely must be people, then livestock, the environment and then extraction,” he said.
“Certainly there is an unprecedented drought going on. Everyone knows that. But we just saw a major rain event at Toobeah in November and then very good rain at Dalby in December.
“Virtually none of it escaped down the system. Just about the whole lot was captured. Just look at the number of full ring tanks there are and compare that to the state of the rivers and creeks.
“My understanding is that water would now be at Bourke if had not have been interfered with. Imagine how much better off those people and the livestock along the river would be if there had been a run in the river.
“We just won’t have communities if there is no water to sustain them.”
Senator Hanson-Young drew an angry response from the cotton industry last week, when she said the upper basin was being destroyed by greed, cotton, corruption and climate change.
“(It’s) an environmental disaster and a national disgrace,” Sen Hanson-Young said.
“We need the water returned to the river urgently and (a) Royal Commission to clean up the mismanagement and corruption that has sucked our rivers dry.”
Cotton Australia general manager Michael Murray said Senator Hanson-Young’s attack on the cotton industry was unacceptable, missed key facts, and demonstrated a clear lack of understanding of agriculture.
“The time has come for the cheap political point scoring to end,” Mr Murray said.
“Just because no cotton is grown in the senator’s home state of South Australia, meaning her risk of offending her constituents is lower, does not mean she can kick us without facts.
“Our farmers, like all farmers are struggling through the drought at the moment.
“Casting doubt on their reputations and provoking public outrage for political gain is having a real impact on these hardworking people.
“It’s time the facts are understood, because we’re here to stay.”
