This weir was built for irrigation purposes, flood mitigation and hydro electricity.

The state government, which has done very little about water conservation and recycling in Melbourne and other major centres over the past 10 years, has officially connected itself to the Goulburn River (part of the Murray-Darling Basin) through the North-South pipeline).

The water being stored in Eildon for Melbourne at the moment is environmental water allocated at the whim of the government.

The government holds this water in trust for the health of the Goulburn River.

Although there is no human critical need for this water in Melbourne it is still intended to flow down the pipeline regardless, because to date very few savings have been found in the Foodbowl Modernisation Project – Stage 1, a project that cost $1 billion.

The state government has tried three times to pass its bulk entitlement to take 75GL, but this has been blocked by the coalition, Greens and the DLP.

One of the main reasons is that the water savings relied on have not been achieved and cannot be substantiated.

Another major issue is that the government, in its third attempt tried to allow pumping water all year round and savings from Stage 2 of the Foodbowl Modernisation Project, promised equally to the environment and irrigators, would no longer be honoured.

As the Bulk Entitlement Order removed the guarantees earlier promised by the government to sell the Foodbowl Modernisation Project and the North-South Pipeline the other parties held the government to account.

The government knows that the water savings are not there and is now decommissioning a great deal of the irrigation system that relies on the Goulburn River.

The coalition attempted to obtain documents through Freedom of Information in August 2008 in relation to the business plan for the Foodbowl Modernisation Project Stage 1 but to date have been unsuccessful.

The documents being sought would provide some insight into where the water savings would come from to send down the North-South Pipeline.

At the direction of the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal the documents were to be released, but the government has now decided to challenge the ruling of VCAT. What is the government trying to hide from the people of Victoria?

Ellen Hogan,

Mansfield