When the blather breaks
Lenore Taylor; 12/7/08
Nineteen years ago as a young reporter, I travelled to the banks of the Murray River to hear then prime minister Bob Hawke deliver what he modestly called “the world’s greatest environment statement”. It involved $500 million over 10 years to plant one billion trees. (Actually it started out as 500,000 trees but then a young prime ministerial adviser called Craig Emerson bounded on to the press bus to say the figure had been bumped up to one billion by factoring in self-seeding.) Hyperbole aside, that day was the start of political and popular public recognition that something was terribly wrong with our most important river system. Unfortunately it didn’t make much of a start on solving the problem.
See: http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,24006207-7583,00.html
Tags: Australia, Environment, Murray-Darling Basin