Despite the disgraceful Nats rollover in Canberra concerning the Murray Darling Water Bill amendment, Federal Water Minister Penny Wong has clearly recognised the importance of the water resources in the Upper Namoi Valley catchment by pledging $1.5 million this week towards the cost of the catchment-wide Water Study which the Pam Allen working party are in the process of defining.

We at CCAG are very grateful for the efforts of Tony Windsor in this regard and will be lobbying the State government, and mining interests with environmental consciences, to match these funds so that the independent study can proceed.  State Mining Minister, Ian Macdonald was circumspect about matching the funding contribution when asked in NSW Parliament, but clearly supportive of the ongoing ‘fruitful discussions’. For more details see CCAG release here and Tony Windsor’s release here.