Your afternoon Briefing: $5b Basin plan’s major shortcomings

Good afternoon, readers. An ‘unrealistic’ $5b Murray Darling Basin plan is at risk of failure and the PM’s latest move on emissions targets.

Good afternoon, readers. An ‘unrealistic’ $5 billion Murray Darling Basin plan is at risk of failure and Scott Morrison’s latest move on emissions targets.

Daryl Hoey is a dairy farmer in Katunga, in the middle of the Murray Goulburn Valley, and also the chairman of the Australian Dairy Industry Council Basin Water Taskforce. He is travelling to Albury on Monday night to meet with other concerned irrigators, ahead of a meeting of state and federal water ministers, to express his concerns about the economic impact of the Murray Darling Basin Plan. He cites new figures showing that since 2011, the value of all irrigated agriculture in the basin area has flatlined compared to an 11 per cent growth on farms not impacted by the plan. He says that the dairy industry is at a tipping point and warns against a SA push to return more water to the system.

‘Unrealistic’ $5b Basin Plan set to fail

The plan to return even more water to the ailing Murray river system has major shortcomings, which could see it fail, a new report warns.

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30/8/18: New energy minister Angus Taylor speaks at the Council of Small Business Organizations Australia (COSBOA) event in Sydney. John Feder/The Australian.

PM splits emissions from energy minister

Angus Taylor’s sole aim is cutting electricity prices as Prime Minister Scott Morrison shifts emission target reduction responsibilities to his Environment Minister.

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06/08/2013 CHP: 06/08/2013 CHP: Kevin Rudd and Tony Abbott go head to head at the election

What’s behind Rudd’s rant?

Kevin Rudd’s latest diatribe brings to mind a Stephen King horror novel in which a car possessed by the spirit of its evil owner enacts its revenge, writes The Mocker.

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Marieke Hardy doesn't want Germaine Greer at the Melbourne Writers Festival.

Festival of dripping wet ideas

Melbourne Writers Festival director Marieke Hardy has given up the battle of ideas in favour of warding off ‘hurt in the world’, writes Caroline Overington. It really isn’t a writers’ festival, it’s a circus.

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22/12/16: Author, Peter Corris in the streets of Newtown in Sydney's inner west ahead of the release of his final Cliff Hardy novel. John Feder/The Australian.

Cliff Hardy author dies

The godfather of Australian crime fiction, Peter Corris, has died at the age of 76.