In this weeks Letters to the Editor: the cotton water controversy continues, Katherine's waving man could be in jeopardy and June Tapp asks why Territorians are subsidising multi-million dollar oil and gas companies.
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Katherine's Vanishing Waves
Two decades ago a marker showing the peak flood level in Katherine Terrace during the 1998 Australia Day flood was placed on the clock tower in the Town Square. The marker was a steel structure in the shape of a wave. When the council spent almost four million dollars turning the Town Square into an abomination, contractors removed the clock tower and the flood level marker. No doubt the 'wave' has either been discarded or is laying in a council storage shed.
Another wave is about to disappear from Katherine. Unlike the flood level marker, it will not be a metallic wave but a wave by a human hand.
Katherine residents and tourists alike are aware of the friendly hand-waves from 'Jim the Waver' as they are driving along the Stuart Highway just north of town. Jim's hand waving to passers by is about to be brought to an end by our bureaucrats.
Contrary to the belief of many residents that the Katherine Town Council is behind the effort to prevent Jim selling a few plants off the back of a utility parked alongside the Stuart Highway and waving to passers by, it is the Department of Infrastructure, Planning and Logistics (DIPL) that is behind the despicable action.
Uncompassionate public servants are bullying a little Aussie battler. They are getting away with it because they have the law on their side. They certainly don't however have any morality.
The people involved should be cringing in shame for their actions, while the Labor administration in Darwin simply doesn't give a damn about a problem in a town below the Berrimah Line.
Bruce Francais
Welcome news of a second clinic
This is very exciting news for Katherine. In 2018, the NT Primary Health Network conducted a workforce assessment and found that Katherine needed nine GPs to serve our population, so there is definitely the need for both practices. It is great news for our community, not only that we are all willing to invest in our town, but also that our collective health needs will be so well catered for.
Melanie Usher
Cotton: what are we faced with?
I read Paul Burkes response to my letter (December 16) and there are still a few questions that need answering.
If Bollguard 3 cotton is so water efficient that irrigation is not needed, why has the cotton industry indicated that it will need in excess of 700gl of water to maintain crops in the dry season?
The cotton industry's published material states that about 80 per cent of cotton grown in the NT will be dry-land, but that still leaves the other 20 per cent as fully irrigated.
Since it is proposed around 150,000 hectares of land will go under cotton, that means at least 30,000 hectares will be completely dependent on our fragile water resources.
The literature also carefully notes the dry-land cotton will be mostly dependent on natural rainfall, but mostly is not completely, so what are we faced with here?
Once the cotton is in the ground, it's a bit late to say 'Ooops, we didn't know we'd need quite that much water!' It smacks of the old saying, 'It's better to ask for forgiveness later than to risk being honest upfront'.
I am not reassured by Paul's statement that some current crops only had to be sprayed three times with chemicals to control pests.
For the health of our waterways, that's three times too many. Soft chemicals? Is there any such thing? When I was growing up, DDT and Dieldrin were regarded as perfectly safe and it took more than 50 years to find out that maybe they weren't.
The constant reference to NT farmers is also misleading, most of the cotton seems to be backed by investors from Victoria, such as the Allan Myers group.
It looks as if the cotton growers have exhausted the Murray-Darling to such an extent they have to go elsewhere, and unfortunately, they've lobbed up here.
Do we really want to see our beautiful barramundi floating belly-up, like the massive fish kills along the Murray? Assurances of concern about the environment from the NIMBYs are very hollow.
Shirley Crane
Why are Territory tax payers subsidising multi-million dollar oil and gas companies?
This week Scott Morrison's government has decided to shell out a further $174 million of Australian taxpayer's money to the multi-billion dollar oil and gas industry to support fracking in the NT Beetaloo Basin. This subsidy of tax payer's money comes on top of the $50 million subsidy to the oil and gas industry last month.
Mr Andrew Liveris, former DOW Chemical's executive has been given the job of running the Territory Economic Reconstruction Committee. Mr Liveris is also an advisor to the Morrison Liberal Government and has 40 years experience as a spokesperson for a multi-billion dollar oil and gas organisation.
Mr Liveris said at a Canberra press conference a few weeks ago. We, the oil and gas industry, do not need subsidies. This is despite a report from the International Monetary Fund (May 2019) that Australian taxpayers pay out $29 billion in subsidies every year to the fossil fuel industry.
NT tax payers are looking forward to advice from Mr Liveris and the Territory Reconstruction Committee as to how the NT Government will offset greenhouse gas emissions from the fracking of the Beetaloo. There are many other major unanswered questions regarding fracking of the Beetaloo Basin. Why are Territory tax payers subsidising multi-million dollar oil and gas companies to pollute our waters and rivers?
June Tapp
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