Thursday, 8 February 2024

 Tim McCURDY (Ovens Valley) (09:43): Over the Christmas period I was invited on multiple occasions to visit the Ovens River and the King River to see the damage that is now being done by fallen trees and the blocking up of our river systems. The Ovens River has become a perched river system, where the build-up of gravel and rocks now has the riverbed nearly the same height as the banks. When water flows out of a perched river it rarely finds its way back into the river it came from. Locals are furious that catchment management bodies are starved for funds by this Allan Labor government and the maintenance is now non-existent. The Victorian government must invest in our rivers before it is too late to protect our natural streams.

The Nationals’ Buyback Fightback tour was extremely successful and well attended in early December last year. The member for Lowan and I toured the Murray River from the dam wall at Albury–Wodonga to the mighty town of Mildura. Key stopovers included Howlong, Yarrawonga, Cobram, Shepparton, Cohuna, Robinvale and Mildura. The federal government has signed the death certificate for many of these small communities that rely on irrigation water to keep their communities alive. Thanks to the members for Benambra, Shepparton, Murray Plains and Mildura, who helped us to educate communities along the way as to the detrimental effects buybacks will have and why we need to stop the buybacks at all costs before the Albanese Labor government sells us all down the river.