On Wednesday June 18th, NSW Minister for Water, Nathan Rees, announced that the Iemma Government would "shelve" the Upper Nepean (Kangaloon) Borefield project, as well as the projects proposed for Leonay & Wallacia.

To read the Minister's News Release, click on News Release 18/6/08.
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Prime Minister Howard's proposal for the Commonwealth to take over administration of the Murray-Darling River system has never been supported by the Victorian Labor Government. Now there appears to be cracks in the ranks of the NSW Labor Government, with one Minister opposing the scheme, and suggesting that the Minister for the Environment also had concerns about it.  To read the report from  The Sydney Morning Herald (3/8/07) click on:
http://www.smh.com.au/news/environment/cabinet-dissent-on-pms-water-takeover/2007/08/02/1185648060475.html

See also Mac Bank Buying Up Water  (below)
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by Matthew Moore, Freedom of Information Editor, Sydney Morning Herald, 24 July 2007.  

While the Sydney Catchment Authority proposes to proceed with the Kangaloon borefield in a vain attempt to "drought-proof Sydney", some of their biggest corporate customers continue to guzzle the precious resource shamelessly.  Can the SCA explain why the Robertson potato farmers, or the few remaining Kangaloon dairy farmers will be sacrificed so that these corporate vandals can continue to pour our Kangaloon aquifer water down the industrial sewers to the sea? Little attempt is made to justify such desecration, but the vandalism continues.

To read the SMH article, click on:

http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2007/07/23/1185043033276.html?from=top5

For "Coal mining takes toll on canal system", from The Sydney Morning Herald, 17 January, 2005;  click on Press Report.
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The Daily Telegraph, 5 March 2007.
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by Adam Bell, The SundayTelegraph,  25/2/2007.

MACQUARIE Bank, the bank that ate Sydney, has set its sights on the drought-stricken bush, buying up precious water rights from struggling farmers.

 
Dried up ... Tocumwal lucerne farmer Ted Hatty has no more water for irrigation.

To read more, go to:  http://www.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/story/0,22049,21281376-5006010,00.html

from Farm Weekly (WA), 15/12/2006. 

WAFARMERS has accused the State Government of more pandering to metropolitan residents after the Environmental Protection Authority approved the controversial Yarragadee aquifer project.

by Michelle Gratton, The Age, 12/2/2007.

WATER restrictions will not work in the long term and Australia's severe water shortage needs radical solutions, such as charging households more for water and allowing irrigators to sell water to city users, says a prominent economist.  Go to:  Water panic will wear off warns economist

by Anne Davies, Sydney Morning Herald, 7/2/2007. 

The NSW Opposition plans to tap the Botany aquifer to provide up to 5 per cent of Sydney's future water if elected in March, but the Iemma Government has committed itself to building a $1.9 billion desalination plant.  Go to: http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/water-wars-sea-or-underground/2007/02/06/1170524096332.html

by Alex Mitchell, Sydney Morning Herald, 28/1/2007.

THE Iemma Government's prime-time promotion of its billion-dollar desalination project, which is fronted by actor Jack Thompson, constitutes "misleading and deceptive advertising", the Opposition says. Go to:  http://www.smh.com.au/news/environment/opposition-cries-foul-at-green-ads/2007/01/27/1169788739827.html

by Linda Silmalis & Sharri Markson, The Daily telegraph, 4/2/2007.

HOUSEHOLDS would be forced to pay more for drinking water under a NSW Government plan, as officials concede the State is running dry.  Go to: 

Press release from the Blue Mountains Conservation Society,  31/1/2007

Sydney could run out of water before alternate supply sources can be commissioned, if Huey does not send down some rain. “The good news is that if the drought breaks and the dams fill, there will be a number of years in which to re-evaluate the advantages of potable recycling over desalination. The bad news is that if the current drought does not break in time, the government will have spent $1.3 billion on an ‘emergency measure’ rather than on a sustainable contribution to supply” according to a report released last night by the Blue Mountains Conservation Society. 

by Alan Mascarenhas, Sydney Morning Herald, January 31, 2007 .

 A leaked memo from within the NSW Department of Water Utilities suggests that the highly visible water wastages are merely the beginning of Sydney Water's wastage problems.

For full report, go to: Never mind big dry: burst pipe wastes thousands more litres  or click on:

Sydney Morning Herald - News Online,  29/1/2007.

Despite a chronic water shortage, NSW residents will not be forced to drink recycled waste water, vows Premier Iemma.

Online report: Iemma says no to recycled water

Or go to:

Although he has ten billion dollars to spend solving the nations water woes, the Prime Minister, Mr Howard, apparently can't manage a simple thing like a rainwater tank on his own house!  For the News.com story, click here: http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,21125563-2,00.html

When the Queensland (Labor) Government proposed to create new irrigation licenses the Commonwealth Parliamentary Secretary for Water, Mr Turnbull, instigated a National Water Commission Inquiry to see whether the proposal breached the National Water Initiative.  When the NSW (Labor) Government proposed to mine the Kangaloon Aquifer for the Sydney water supply, the Commonwealth (and Mr Turnbull) remain strangely silent.

The following article, by Michael Thomson was published by The Rural Press on 10 January 2007. . .