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March 20, 2013
One of the strongest pleas from across the Murray-Darling Basin has been the irrigators' begging to stop water buybacks. This has been the cheapest for the Gillard Government to fill their environmental bucket. Sadly too often it has destroyed rural futures.
Ten years ago the Goulburn-Murray irrigation system had 1,900 gigalitres to grow food. This volume is almost down to 900 giga... Click here for full story
Views: 135 | Comments: 0
March 6, 2013
The free trade agreements (FTAs) with our major trading partners, including China, Japan and South Korea, languish unsigned. Australia is therefore losing the race in its key food export markets.
A recently signed FTA between New Zealand and China has seen China’s importance to New Zealand as an agricultural trading partner jump from 12th to 2nd in 4 years. In a recent announcemen... Click here for full story
Views: 493 | Comments: 1
February 22, 2013
Local orchardists and others who employ overseas backpackers are sick of paying 9% superannuation on top of the person’s salary, knowing the worker will rarely end up with the money. It also costs them hugely in extra red-tape and lost business income.
Some of our biggest orchardists in the Goulburn Valley are paying up to $40,000 a year into superannuation funds for their backpac... Click here for full story
Views: 1378 | Comments: 0
December 21, 2012
Sharman Stone, Member for Murray says she is hardly surprised but troubled to see two Basin States rush to dishonour 100 year old Murray River management cost sharing agreements and conventions. NSW led off with a shock announcement six months ago; they are now hotly pursued by S.A. announcing it will also slash its joint funding contribution, by 50%.
Unfortunately,... Click here for full story
Views: 1043 | Comments: 0
October 23, 2012
$1 billion was cut from Private Health Insurance, even though the Prime Minister had previously stated that she would leave this sector alone.
The savings will come from not paying the rebate on increases to premiums above CPI and by removing the rebate on Lifetime Health Cover loading.
People in Strathbogie Shire do not have access to public hospital beds. Health Service Centres at Euroa, Nagam... Click here for full story
Views: 832 | Comments: 0
October 18, 2012
The Productivity Commission Electricity Overview Report released on Thursday (18th) Oct has found that in real terms electricity prices have gone up by more than 50% over the last 5 years.
These hikes in charges in every state are bad enough, but are now being compounded by the addition of the Carbon Tax on all electricity, and the Carbon Equivalent Tax on c... Click here for full story
Views: 1010 | Comments: 4
October 17, 2012
News of an international company contemplating buying into the Moraitis Group raises questions about the security of jobs at the big Tatura tomato operation.
Moraitis is a huge vertically integrated agri-business. The purchase is of a similar scale as the Cubbie Station takeover. We need to know how the Foreign Investment Review Board (FIRB) views this sale, in particular, w... Click here for full story
Views: 827 | Comments: 1
October 1, 2012
Many Australians think we consume mostly our own home grown food. This is no longer the case. We are importing much more and becoming less competitive overseas with our exports. The data from Singapore tells a startling story.
Australian beef sales to Singapore surged 94% to 1357 tonnes in August. Aussie beef was promoted in a coordinated way by the Meat and Livestock Corporation,... Click here for full story
Views: 812 | Comments: 0
September 11, 2012
Australia is on the threshold of becoming the world’s number one exporter of Liquified Natural Gas (LNG). We have huge reserves. Within ten years we will have pulled ahead of Qatar, currently the number one gas exporter.
There is one big difference between Qatar and Australia, however. Like the rest of the world’s LNG producers Qatar has reserved some of the gas fo... Click here for full story
Views: 406 | Comments: 2
July 17, 2012
The Victorian Government’s Goulburn-Murray Water (G-MW)- Northern Victorian Irrigation Renewal Project (NVIRP) Foodbowl Modernisation Project, plans to shut down or privatise half of the existing infrastructure in the Goulburn-Murray Irrigation District. This move could put the region’s future economic viability in jeopardy.
It will impact not only farms, but the towns that depen... Click here for full story
Views: 1576 | Comments: 1