Tuesday, May 12, 2009

MAYBE NOT SO GREAT AFTER ALL

In WA they've got a Great Southern wine region. Here in SA there is a Great Southern Railway. And there's another mob called Great Southern who look after investment schemes in assorted corners of 'rural' Australia. The schemes include timber plantations that have gobbled up big chunks country everywhere from WA to NSW and the Tiwi Islands to Kangaroo Island. According to some observers the fate of some of these tax minimisation cum investment outfits doesn't look too flash. Businesses come and go. Nothing new there. But if these schemes fail, what happens to the trees in the ground? What about the productive land covered in Blue Gums busily sucking the water table dry? On what balance sheet do the losses to nature and the community appear?

1 comment:

Denis Wilson said...

Quite right, Quentin.
Managed Investment Schemes and privately finded agribusinesses are sucking the life out of the country. Not just the water, but also, because they are driven by tax-dodgers, they can better afford to buy water than can the traditional family farmers.
Good toi see you standing =up against the likes of Great Southern.
Cheers
Denis Wilson
Blogger and co-convenor of the Australian Water Network.