Cubbie Station - What price to rehabilitate the country it has degraded?

Cubbie Station - What price to rehabilitate the country it has degraded?
by Omaxa bin Eartha.
20/08/09.

One has to wonder whether the “improvements” the Cubbie Station's Corporation has ploughed into/onto the 93,000 hectare property are in fact “improvements” when looked at in light of the delicate environment it sits in?

There is little or no doubt that cotton farming is BAD for the environment, and that the land is degraded from it. It has to be asked if farming of any kind is justifiable in such a sensitive area.

Therefore what is any buyer paying the $450 MILLION for?

In this light, we must ask how much will it cost the responsible buyer (and we cannot allow an irresponsible buyer), to cure the land of the damage done by the orientation around that specialist and detrimental form of land use?

Paying the current owners for possession of the land and improvements must take into consideration how much reparations will cost.

No doubt some proportion of the improvements and land can be adapted inexpensively to farm or produce another type of produce or crop, but again, in today's enviro-crisis, with Cubbie Station sitting atop the crucial Darling River system, there's little doubt the property cannot be raped in any way similar to the way it has been.

I advocate that the Federal government buy it, leaving the States of Queensland and NSW right out of the deal. (See my earlier weblog “Cubbie Station - Buy It!”)

The responsible buyer, will or must as a priority seek to rehabilitate the land first and foremost, both for the future of the lower rivers' system, but also for the perpetual well-being and intrinsic value of the property's own land area.

So, how much will that cost, and therefore, is it correct for the new owner to have to pay-out more to rehabilitate it, over and above the $450 million, to a company which has in-the-main degraded the land?

Reason would demand that in fact the company selling the property must, out-of-it's-own-Swiss-pocket, spend whatever is necessary to rehabilitate the land, before or after it is acquired or resumed by the federal government, and even that, that amount should be deducted from the purchase price.

I deeply suspect, that were an Economic Science approach taken and valuation made of the property, with all the bits-and-pieces, as it is, the price being asked would be found to be quite a bit more than is Right. Perhaps near twice as much as is Right, and, Proper.

One thing we can all be absolutely certain of, is that the Cubbie Station corporation which now owns it, did NOT produce the Land. So, what right have they to profit from selling THE LAND.

If any “improvements” are actual “improvements” to the condition of the land, including buildings and infrastructure, and were made or added by the current owners, then they are due recompense.

But, in truth, they have no right to demand money for the land itself.

Especially as it is still Aborigine Land.

But that, perhaps, is another Issue?

Aum