“The problem is mismanagement of the Barwon-Darling rivers” activist
Fleur Thompson told the Yaama Ngunna Baaka Corroboree Festival bus tour,
as it passed through the western New South Wales town of Bourke on
September 30.
“The federal and state governments could step in anytime and fix it,
but they don’t and won’t. To do that the governments would have to admit
fault.”
Between September 28 and October 4, some 300 Indigenous and
non-Indigenous people travelled through western NSW towns that have been
badly affected by a lack of water in the rivers, as part of the
corroboree organised by First Nations activist and artist Uncle Bruce
Shillingsworth.
Discussing the causes of the lack of water, Thompson explained:
“There is a water crisis. It is a perfect storm, which includes drought,
water theft, mismanagement, political interference and corruption.
“It came about because the rules about irrigation and allocation of water in the river were changed by governments in 2012.”
