Letters to the editor - August 1

When builders in Australia have to order from overseas - because Australia does not do that work anymore - the building companies order these imported cladding products in bulk.

It is not their responsibility to test each type of article they order.

These cladding panels should have a guarantee on them.

Our government surely is not that slack not to insist on guarantees on imported building materials.

If our government is that slack, then they are responsible for the accidents that have happened.

If there is a guarantee then the country in which the articles are made is completely responsible.

Australia needs to wake up fast and realise this free trade thing does not work well in a lot of cases.

In the long run, our government is completely responsible for importing inferior products from overseas.

Once again the ABC's Four Corners program has given a damning report on the Murray-Darling Basin Plan.

My great-grandfather settled near here (Cobram, Vic) in 1876.

I have followed the Basin Plan story since its inception.

I run a small Facebook page called "Murray Darling Basin Connection", which gives me a strong interest to follow.

I have travelled the whole Murray-Darling Basin a few times and I have been gobsmacked by the inequity in the irrigation schemes.

Last year, for instance, the Darling River ran dry, yet the dam at St George had water in it for irrigation.

Our area gave up a lot of water (the whole old soldier settlement scheme lays mainly defunct), so I am bitterly disappointed the water has been lost.

The same can be said for many irrigation areas.

Yet large-scale irrigation is still being developed, such as large nut plantations on the lower River Murray, along with a major scheme being developed along the Sturt Highway between Carathool, NSW, and Hay, NSW.

Also, a large investment firm has apparently spent more than $100 million buying properties in our catchment area.

Last year, the River Murray was run at least 20 per cent above usual levels for many months, and the Mulwala Canal was run at capacity to supply water to the lower Murray and the Lower Lakes, because the Darling River was dry.

If that is not governmental and corporate greed, and insanity, then I don't know what is, especially as the farmers who usually get supply from the Mulwala Canal got zero per cent allocation.

The Lower Lakes and Coorong in SA must be addressed as part of the plan and they must give up water like the rest of us have had to.

To keep that system filled with fresh water is environmental madness.

I find it a shame that during the mining bill debate in early July, the Minister for Primary Industries (Tim Whetstone) was noticeably quiet.

I believe he should be one of the main supporters of the agriculture industry and the protections of farmers and the land we grow food on.