Tonight I attended the Murray Plains Candidates Forum hosted by the Central Murray Environmental Floodplains Group Inc at Kerang, in North Central Victoria.
The 3 candidates present were Zoe Cook (Victorian Greens), Brett Hosking (The Nationals) and Garner Smith (One Nation Victoria).
6 Questions were asked by Central Murray Environmental Floodplains Group chair Geoff Kendall, and the big ticket theme behind most of these questions was water. Water policy has been incredibly destructive to our community and the Murray Plains electorate.
The meeting was live-streamed by Kendall Jennings from KAJX Communications and can be watched at https://www.youtube.com/live/ZbB8lKaBQ4w
I was able to ask a question, which happened at 2:01:36 into the video. I asked the 3 candidates about the interference of foreign non-government entities into our parliaments and in particular water policies, and what the candidates intend to do about dealing with the influence of these foreign groups. Each of the 3 candidates responded to me.
The next question came from Sam from the Gannawarra Times Newspaper, at 2:09:02 into the video. She questioned how candidates will stand against their own parties and powerful vested interests involved with the parties. This seemed to be targeted towards Garner and One Nation, but all the candidates had a crack at answering it.
Then, at 2:15:05 in the video, Lloyd Polkinghorn, owner and editor of the The Koondrook and Barham Bridge Newspaper was offered the chance to ask a final question. Lloyd backed up my question, asking the candidates “What is the one international agreement that enabled the federal government to usurp the constitutional rights of states to govern their water resources?”
The answer, of course, is the Ramsar Convention, a United Nations agreement.
Did any of the panellists know the answer to this? Their responses were interesting.
Terrific media work as usual by Lloyd, who then went onto briefly explain Ramsar, and a brief discussion took place with the candidates about Ramsar and the damage done to wildlife under the guise of “saving the environment”.
Billboard Battalion has been working hard for over 4 years to force these issues out of the “echo-chamber” of like minded people, and into the mainstream community discussion, and it was terrific to see these issues being bought once again into the mainstream public, and it was very important that the large crowd in attendance got to hear this exchange.
Tomorrow I am heading off for the weekend on another motorbike trip, myself and some friends from Carter’s Legacy Ride are heading up to the Victoria/SA Border to ride the Border Track on our little Honda Postie Bikes. I will try and do some live-streams along the way.
Nick Marlow
Billboard Battalion
Yarrawalla, North Central Victoria, Australia.
Thursday 15th October 2026.
