Di Bell and friends enjoyed a glorious day at Langhorne Creek with jazz, local wines, food and dancing. There was plenty of thoughtful discussion about the state of the River Murray
and Lower Lakes and when the new member for Mayo popped in for lunch with his family, Di was able to congratulate him on the election results. These were declared on September 23 and Di, who was in Sydney at a conference, was disappointed not to be present. We are still waiting for details of the full distribution of preferences to be posted on the AEC website.
The matter of the River Murray was on the Council of Australian Governments’ (COAG) agenda and the local community was active in drawing attention to the need to get answers and action [COAG meeting in Perth Thursday 2nd October]
But the deepening financial crisis on Wall Street took precedence. With respect to tackling the problems in the Murray-Darling Basin, the COAG meetings had none of the urgency that had characterised the political pronouncements of the rallies (see the October 2 Communiqué). The next COAG meeting scheduled for December has been brought forward to November 17 and it will be important to keep pressure on elected politicians regarding their responsibilities for the River Murray, Lakes and Coorong.
The Senate Standing Committee on Rural and Regional Affairs and Transport was due to report on its “Inquiry into water management in the Coorong and Lower Lakes” on October 3, but instead it issued an Interim Report saying it would report on October 10.
Submissions to the Inquiry, including one from Di Bell, are available here.
