Aboriginal peoples barely own a drop of water in the vast Murray-Darling Basin water market, and First Nations groups say government inaction is denying their Indigenous rights to use the resource for environmental, social and economic purposes.
The Murray-Darling Basin water market is worth more than $16 billion, but Aboriginal organisations in NSW own just $16 million in water assets, or 0.1 per cent, according to a study from Griffith University – and First Nations groups own very little else in other states.
The Brewarrina weir on the Barwon River in north-west NSW. First Nations groups are urging the federal government to increase the speed and volume of the rollout of their water rights. Credit:Getty Images
The federal government set aside $40 million two-and-a-half years ago to purchase water rights for Aboriginal peoples across the basin, to be split evenly between the north and south, but is yet to invest any of the money, frustrating First Nations advocates.
"The federal government has procrastinated for a very long time," said Grant Rigney, vice chairman of the Murray Lower Darling Rivers Indigenous Nations, which advocates for First Nations peoples in the southern half of the basin.
Flornaz on January 10th, 2021 at 05:38 UTC »
Sometimes the mouth of the Murray dries up, despite it being one of the biggest rivers in Australia. Too much water taken from upstream.
Cotton and rice farming should be banned from buying extra water credits. We don’t have the right climate/weather patterns to ethically sustain them.
growingrock on January 10th, 2021 at 04:12 UTC »
yea but they have a verse in the anthem now, surely that will compensate for the lack of water
autotldr on January 10th, 2021 at 03:02 UTC »
This is the best tl;dr I could make, original reduced by 82%. (I'm a bot)
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