I was doin the happy dance of happiness on Friday.You see the rainwater barrels were in stock with 9 of them reserved for lil ol me...yippie !
I played packhorse and trundled them home,one at a time,10 trips in total...the last one to return the trolley...and sat back gazing in rapture at the last of my water storages.
I had Him Indoors all primed to insert taps and connect the barrels to the existing ones,with much grumbling of course,ready to sit waiting for the precious water to fall when I happened to read todays' paper.
I mentioned last week about a rumour we've all heard that the State Govt were going to attach water meters to rainwater tanks and water bores....well as it turns out it's our
Federal Govt that's going to tax us on water in our rainwater tanks.According to these money-hungry cretins
"Legally, all water in Australia is vested in governments." It is ? Did someone forget to send the memo to Mother Nature or the environment?
Have our governments suddenly been annointed God ?
Such a regime already exists for farmers catching rainwater and storing it in dams.If a farmer wants to build a dam he has to apply for a licence and
pay for the water that falls from the sky.This doesn't include irrigation rights of river water(for which farmers pay mega$$$),but
rain falling from the sky on the farmers' land. Nicknamed
"privatising rain" in 1999.
Talk about water on the brain !
This ties in nicely with our
Prime Monkey Bonsai Howard wanting Federal control of Australias' river systems.Ahhh the clever little monkey might have a baboons' face but he's got a manipulative calculating brain. Then again maybe one should look to Mrs. Monkey,often claimed to be the real brains behind the Monkey Throne.
Licencing our rainwater tanks,then taxing us if we collect more than our "alotted" amount,from our own roofs no less,is sheer Government gluttony at it's infinate worst.
Claiming roof-collected rainfall deprives rivers and underground water systems of the much needed wet stuff is bordering on the ridiculous .Rain will fall wherever it falls and claiming the public is depriving (or "stealing") it from anything is bloody madness.If they could regulate rain clouds they would.
Since before white settlement Australia's rivers have evolved with feast or famine of our flutuating rainfall.Many major rivers have been documented as having completely dried up,only to be reborn with the next heavy downpours.
In fact many rivers have been in far worse condition than they are currently yet none of the past Govts flushed them with precious drinking water.That's the same drinking water collected in a purpose-built catchment, but apparently rivers over-ride the growing populations' entitlement to clean,reliable water during a drought.
They are trying to sell us on recycled sewerage to drink - but only after it's privatised,with private water companies banging for big bucks.
If recycled water is so pure and safe to drink why not use that to flush the river systems and return it to artesian water supplies?
Or insist industries substitute it for our drinking water they currently use?
Or pipe it into homes for use in washing,toilets,gardens ?
The Federal Govt claims rainfall is theirs,likening themselves to God,but only after they've sighted a possible tax lurk in it for their over-flowing coffers.
An old saying is coming true -
"The day shit is worth money,poor people will be born without arseholes".
