NOT A DROP OF OUTRAGE

AUSTRALIA is not referred to as “the wide, brown land’’ for nothing.

Ours is the driest continent on the planet, yet governments have struggled with policing water use. As the country battles drought, the Murray-Darling Basin and most other water systems remain a major dilemma. Why Australia allows production of cotton for example, which uses huge amounts of water, is a mystery to most.

For Gold Coasters, cocooned as we are in our comfortable green strip that clings to the coastline, water issues are largely off the radar, especially since the wall of the Hinze Dam was raised and the infrequently used (to date) desalination plant gave our city and the rest of southeast Queensland water security. Many Gold Coasters seem unaware of the devastating drought that has communities west of the Great Dividing Range staring at ruin.

But our strip of green should not give the green light to an open-slather approach to the so-called water mining industry.

The Tweed Shire Council has slammed the brakes on any new extraction businesses, other than a handful previously approved. It has cited a “precautionary principle’’, detailing community concerns over sustainability of the industry and a lack of groundwater data.

We do not often agree with the Tweed council, but in this instance support its stance. Perhaps it should build another dam. Even in New Zealand, where – it has been reported – an average of 2.3 metres of rain falls nationwide annually, equating to 600 trillion litres of fresh water being added to the system to flow through that country’s beautiful lakes, rivers and aquifers, passions run high in the water mining debate. The New Zealand environment department has calculated there are 145 million litres available per person per year, suggesting that is seven times what is available to Australians.

It was an important issue at the last New Zealand election, yet it seems the Gold Coast maintains a cavalier approach.

We must be very careful, which begs the question: what does the city council think it is doing in the case of a company that appears to have been extracting water at Natural Bridge – a precious green jewel in our Hinterland – without approval from as far back as 2005? How and why can Consolidated Water Pty Ltd be allowed to continue operating? Instead of voicing any outrage or levelling some penalty, the city council has apparently simply said well, just submit a development application.

If the city is so relaxed about this, we should instead be sending water to struggling towns like Stanthorpe and the drought-hit western communities.

And doing it for free.