00:00Hi, my name is Caitlin and I'm 12 years old and I'm from the Murribidgee area.
00:04I love where I live and knowing that our food and fibre comes from hard-working families like mine.
00:10But I'm worried about the future, not just for me, but for all of us.
00:15As kids, we care about the environment a lot.
00:19But here's the thing, water buybacks don't just take away water.
00:23They take away jobs, barns and entire communities.
00:26They take away our future.
00:28Economic studies show that buybacks push up water prices, cut farm production and cause major job losses.
00:37In places like mine, where farming is everything, there aren't many other job options.
00:42When water is taken away, farms struggle.
00:45That means less work for truck drivers, shop owners, mechanics and teachers.
00:50Schools get smaller, families start to move away and suddenly our town starts disappearing.
00:55What happens when I grow up?
00:57Will I even have a home to come back to?
00:59Is the government aware of the negative impact on the Australian economy from the lack of food and fibre production?
01:05When farms produce less, prices go up, exports suffer and we all feel the impact.
01:10Our farmers do everything they can to protect our precious water resource.
01:15The way water is used is highly regulated, monitored and measured.
01:19We already have strong rules in place to make sure water is used responsibly.
01:24The real issue is the decision about water being made without thinking about the people who live here.
01:31We want a healthy river, but we also want a healthy community.
01:35There has to be a better way, one that looks after the environment without sacrificing the people who live here.
01:41The government should be supporting communities, not making rule changes and reducing farmers' access to water.
01:49Past sustainability programs meant to help have failed because they weren't big enough, weren't targeted properly and didn't create real long-term jobs.
01:57We need a different approach.
02:00If I, just at 12 years old, can see taking water from farmers means less food on the supermarket shelves and higher grocery prices, lost jobs and weaker regional communities,
02:12why can't the people making these decisions?
02:14Are they ignoring the consequences?
02:17Or do they just not care what's going to happen to us, the next generation?
02:20I've been asking questions about taxes and where the money goes.
02:24I'd be very upset if my hard-earned tax money was being wasted on buybacks.
02:29So my message to you is very clear.
02:32Stop buying more water and hurting our communities.
02:35Start putting money towards complementary measures that will actually keep our environment clean and our rivers healthy.
02:41If you want to make consultation better, which you should, ask us what we think at the start.
02:47Not after it's all been decided.
02:49We can help make all these changes better for everyone.
02:53To the people making these decisions, please think about us.
02:56We're the next generation and we want a future in the towns that we love.
03:00We care about water, but we also care about our homes, our schools and our futures.
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