Dear Bruce Saunders MLA


I write to you as a matter of urgency.


Having spent years working in the cattle industry if Queensland I am well aware of the importance of water to the rural community. I have learnt that Part 4 of the Water Reform and Other Legislation Amendment Act 2014 (WROLAA) is about to be proclaimed. This is disastrous situation, a situation which the Labor Party, while in opposition, readily recognised and opposed. Now it has changed its mind.


The argument that miners have to ‘mitigate’ and ‘make good’ that which is lost is an argument which effectively confirms that the legislation is disastrous to rural water supplies. In other words, by raising ‘mitigation’ as an argument admits the liability mining has on our precious water resource. It is therefore, a non argument.


Bruce, like you, I have worked around Mount Isa. I have seen the devastation big mining companies effect on the fragile nature of the environment. Just recently this was vividly illustrated by the collapse of a tailings dam in Brazil. Yes, mining can contribute to the national good, but the logistics and the dangers of present mining activities are not in the national interest .. they are in the interests of big mining companies who care little for rural communities.


Please advise me that this thought bubble is going away. Please confirm for me that the Labor Party does care for rural communities. Please confirm for me that the Labor Party recognises that water is fundamental to rural communities.


I await your reply.


Yours faithfully


John Ford

0418 771 889