People for A Living Moorabool have generally found politicians and candidates from across the political spectrum have been open to recognising the plight of the Moorabool River. With the recent rains it has been easy to forget the declining health of our waterways due to the impact of climate change. The Moorabool River has been identified as having lost 20% of its inflows over the last 15 years due to decreasing rainfall.
So it has been welcome to see a candidate mention rivers in general and the Moorabool in particular on their candidate page.
Sam McColl, Greens candidate for the seat of Eureka - a seat which encompasses most of the upper Moorabool - has been refreshingly clear:
"We must protect our precious wetland and river areas like the Moorabool River, the Werribee River, and the Woody Yaloak River."
His page can be found here: https://greens.org.au/vic/person/sam-mccoll
Mention also should go to Hillary McAllistar, Greens candidate for Polworth. Hillary screened the film The River Moorabool at her campaign launch in Torquay on the 3rd of November even though the river is outside her electorate. Her page can be found here: https://greens.org.au/vic/person/hilary-mcallister where she too mentions rivers.
If people find there are other candidates from other parties who have our rivers as part of their platform please let us know at
Candidates are also welcome to contact us directly to provide a quote which we will post on our site.
Paul Tatchel, Liberal candidate for Eureka has let us know:
"The river system is the life-blood of the Moorabool Shire, we must ensure it doesn’t go into cardiac arrest!"
His page can be found here: https://vic.liberal.org.au/team/paul-tatchell
Finally PALM is part of the Concerned Waterway Alliance which is "a network of community and environment groups from Gippsland to the Otways. We share a deep concern about the degraded state of southern Victoria’s rivers, wetlands and aquifers, and are committed to improving their health for the benefit of current and future generations."
They view this election has having 3 important themes:
- Water leadership in the climate crisis
- Lock in targets for sustainable water use
- Measure and monitor all the water we take from rivers and aquifers.
On their page at concernedwaterwaysalliance.org contains the above election briefers on these themes.
Please feel free to download them and hand them to candidates in your electorate.
Authorised by: Cameron Steele, Coordinator People for A living Moorabool, 109 Kelly Rd Bannockburn 3331