OUTSPOKEN MP Bob Katter has launched an extraordinary attack on the government over irrigation entitlements, branding lawmakers “thieves” and “bloody ratbags”.
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He said the Murray Darling Basin Plan has created a recession in irrigation communities and blasted local MPs for not doing more to stop it.
“They’ve cut back nearly 30 per cent of the Griffith economy with the Murray Darling cutbacks and for people to go back and re-elect people who did that is extraordinary,” he said.
“Businesses can go on for 10 years trading off their equity, but if you think you can sacrifice 30 per cent of the economy and still have a town like it is now, you believe in the tooth fairy. Crisis time is just around the corner for the whole of the Murray Darling Basin.”
Mr Katter said he was deeply concerned about the district’s future.
“I’m 4000 kilometres away from the bloody Murray Darling Basin, but I like to think I’m a patriotic Australian and I just think they should give back to the economy the water they thieved off us,.” he said.
Mr Katter believes there are 40 to 50 dam sites throughout Australia that should be utilised. His comments come as irrigators demand the state government increase “dismal” water allocations as dams across the region inch closer to capacity.
Griffith mayor John Dal Broi told The Advertiser last week he was “extremely disappointed” water allocations were fixed at 17 per cent for Murrumbidgee irrigators, despite Burrinjuck Dam sitting at 65 per cent and Blowering Dam at 44 per cent.