Mr Garrett and Ms Wong have been complicit with the Victorian Government in allowing 75 billion litres of water to be removed from our dying and highly stressed northern rivers.

No Australian should feel content or have faith in the democratic process.

Peter Garrett, who is empowered with protecting our environment, has put the security of our future food supply at risk, has undermined the future of the regional tourism industry and has ignored the environmental plight of Lake Eildon, the Gippsland Lakes, the health of the mighty Goulburn River, the Murray and Thomson Rivers, the Lower Lakes and the Coorong.

As a consequence, Australia is diminished. Shame on you all!

I had faith in the power of evidence; I believed that legislation and political responsibility would result in a wise and creative outcome.

My faith in the system has been dashed.

The whole process of this pipeline has been a charade.

It is a project based on spin, political expediency and total disregard for the environment and rural communities of the Murray-Goulburn region, the Yarra Valley and now Gippsland as well.

It beggars belief.

MALCOLM CALDER,

Former Chair of Botany,

University of Melbourne