{"id":3414,"date":"2011-12-05T20:36:54","date_gmt":"2011-12-05T10:36:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/tomgrimshaw.com\/tomsblog\/?p=3414"},"modified":"2011-12-05T20:36:54","modified_gmt":"2011-12-05T10:36:54","slug":"burke-lied-mdba-plan-will-smash-basin-regions-which-is-already-happening","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.tomgrimshaw.com\/tomsblog\/?p=3414","title":{"rendered":"Burke lied\u2014MDBA Plan will smash Basin regions, which is already happening"},"content":{"rendered":"

Following an angry confrontation with a Griffith farmer on 29th November, Minister for Sustainability, Environment, Water, Population and Communities, Tony Burke said in an interview that farmers will only sell their water rights because of increasingly efficient agricultural practice; therefore, water buybacks will have no impact on the productivity of farms and the local towns. However, the 2010 Rizza Report, a banker\u2019s analysis commissioned by the MDBA prior to the October 2010 release of their Guide to the proposed Basin Plan, revealed that banks had already tightened the purse strings in advance of the MDBA\u2019s intended decimation of agriculture, to such a degree that farmers would have to sell their water rights in order to remain financially viable, in order to continue to exist. (In the words of the Rizza report: \u201c\u2026a common result being the sale of water as a means of working through the farmers\u2019 financial difficulties.\u201d)
\nThe Rizza report also revealed that the MDBA\u2019s Plan would create economic conditions in the Basin equivalent to permanent drought. It was admitted that with the MDBA Plan this status will likely become permanent\u2014\u201cthe equivalent of drought conditions and the resultant cash flow consequences may become the normal operating environment.\u201d
\n\u201cDespite the resilience demonstrated by farmers and communities throughout the drought, the consistent feedback received from financiers is that a permanent reduction in water for consumptive use would decimate a number of towns economically dependent on irrigation\u2026\u201d the report went on to say.
\nAs a consequence, covenants that exist in virtually every bank loan covering \u201cMaterial Adverse Events\u201d\u2014any event which may affect the ability of an enterprise to make an income\u2014could be triggered at any time, empowering the banks to immediately call in loans, and even invoke immediate foreclosure. Rizza admitted that banks had already begun taking action to reduce their lending exposure to the Basin. (Read more about this, and about Rizza\u2019s background here<\/a>.)
\n\u201cDue to the debt levels, there has been substantial pressure applied by some banks to particular borrowers to reduce debt through the sale of water assets and raising of equity. As time passes \u2026 this pressure increases.\u201d
\nThen comes the self-fulfilling downward spiral:
\nForcing such sales drives down the prices of water and land across the board. \u201cThe banks will view the neighbour\u2019s water assets as only worth as much as the recent water sale. The application of Accounting Standards will likely require reduction in recent water sales to be reflected the accounts [sic] of co-located businesses.\u201d
\nThus the banks are effectively forcing the shutdown of entire towns by forcing an initial sale of land\/water to collect on their debts.
\n\u201cWith a reduction in asset value, gearing increases, putting further pressure on borrowers to reduce debt. In addition, with the uncertainty in water entitlements, banks may be increasingly reluctant to make new loans except at lower debt levels.\u201d
\nSelling water rights to repay debt, etc., sends money primarily back to the banks, and so \u201cis no longer available to generate income in the community.\u201d
\nMany farms will be forced to restructure once they have sold water rights, but as Rizza relays from interviews he conducted with the relevant banks: \u201cMany banks interviewed would not seriously contemplate lending to a farm to restructure their business \u2026\u201d
\nProperty values will continue to fall and earnable cashflows from these properties (and their associated towns) will be much reduced as a result of the MDBA Plan, Rizza admits. Falling property values will drive down rates, collapsing local council revenues, and affecting the whole region.
\nTherefore, \u201ctowns with a population less than 25,000 people, which predominantly rely on irrigation for its economy, are not sustainable in the longer term as a population centre without a thriving irrigation industry\u201d. (Emphasis added.)
\nThe effect on food production of the shutdown of key regions of Australia\u2019s primary irrigation farmland is patently obvious.
\nTony Burke cannot deny the genocidal consequences of what has been openly admitted and endorsed by the Rizza Report and the MDBA which commissioned it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Following an angry confrontation with a Griffith farmer on 29th November, Minister for Sustainability, Environment, Water, Population and Communities, Tony Burke said in an interview that farmers will only sell their water rights because of increasingly efficient agricultural practice; therefore, water buybacks will have no impact on the productivity of farms and the local towns. … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Burke lied\u2014MDBA Plan will smash Basin regions, which is already happening”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3414","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general-interest","category-health-tips"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tomgrimshaw.com\/tomsblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3414","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tomgrimshaw.com\/tomsblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tomgrimshaw.com\/tomsblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tomgrimshaw.com\/tomsblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tomgrimshaw.com\/tomsblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3414"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.tomgrimshaw.com\/tomsblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3414\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tomgrimshaw.com\/tomsblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3414"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tomgrimshaw.com\/tomsblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3414"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tomgrimshaw.com\/tomsblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3414"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}