As our country dries out and our forests burn, our governments refuse to address the big issue of adopting a new business model - tax royalties from big business and the approval to exploit our landscape are killing this country.

Whether it be cotton, rice, almonds, coal, iron ore, natural gas or gold, multi-nationals are screwing our landscape with government approval.

At this rate our children, and grandchildren, will inherit the biggest desert island on the planet.

As monopolies trade our water rights, we watch as our species decline, our water evaporate, and our top soil blows away.

Having lived my entire life in country NSW and having worked in several western areas of the State it has been my observation that we are exploiting the landscape beyond its ability to give.

I remember my father commenting while studying at Armidale University in the early 1960s that the declared desertification of our continent was moving eastward at a rate of 10 miles every 10 years.

As a nation we have been slow to learn that Northern Hemisphere farming practices do not work here:

Recently, a 5000 acre mixed farming property was sold to an international consortium. The new owners removed all internal fencing, and many trees to make it suitable for broad-acre farming.

Here in lies the problem, multi-nationals, institutional investors, big business and big farming with tacit approval of governments are facilitating the desertification of our landscape.

Sooner or later someone is going to have to 'join the dots' and act in the national interest - we need to rehydrate the landscape, revegetate and restore the natural hydration effect of our continent as part of this living planet.

Whether it be in Australia, South America, North America, Indonesia, Eastern Block countries or across Africa, the destruction of natural habitat to produce mono-crops is destroying our planet.

Having personally observed broad-acre clearing, laser levelling and GPS ploughing in the western plains area of our State it stands to reason that what my father spoke of was correct.

In pursuit of the almighty dollar governments, corporations and big business are unwittingly destroying this continent and the planet upon which we all rely for our sustenance.

As the landscape dries out, the water supplies dry up and the fires burn I have been prompted to offer some thoughts as to a vision for the future.

A vision for the future - a long term plan

When it finally does rain, there will be a need to capture and retain the moisture in the landscape, by slowing down the flow of the creeks and rivers, allowing the water to seep laterally through the landscape, the land will then becomes its own reservoir.

Billabongs and wetlands need to be created not drained. Hollows, valleys, rivers and creek beds need to be shaded with grasses and trees to prevent these reservoirs of moisture from drying out.

Tree belts and wildlife corridors need to be established throughout the landscape along waterways within bird flight distance of each other.

River corridors of natural vegetation have to be established and maintained.

A ratio has to be developed as to how much land can be cleared in any given area, and how much must be retained or restored as natural habitat.

The genius of this proposal is not new, and has been well researched, recorded, and practically applied by Peter Andrews. In his books - 'Back from the Brink' and 'Beyond the Brink' he documents these methods in great detail (refer to several editions of 'Landline').

However, the immediate concern is, when it finally rains and we relax, the flooding rains in the north will never reach the south, and 'Big Farmer' in the north, with government approval will once again recreate the headline 'They stole a flood' as they fill their private reservoirs.

It must be legislated that the environment gets the first flush of any flood event.

Whether it be cotton, rice, wheat, coal, almonds or natural gas, governments have to promote better ways of harvesting our landscape, not leaving it to free enterprise to determine what the landscape can withstand.

The free enterprise exploitation of our lands, the trading in water rights and the creaming of taxes from such dealings must be renegotiated.

The response from a local, as to why the river is flowing backwards, should never be "they've turned the pumps on".

The laser-levelling of the landscape to facilitate flood irrigation, and the planting of horizon to horizon low carbon absorbing mono-crops is planetary suicide.

Whether it is on the coast or inland, the leaky reservoirs, 'raft' system should be mandatory farm management practice on every property, across all landscapes on this continent.

I believe the first government to legislate this way will win votes in the climate debate. Surely our legislators can walk and chew gum at the same time.

As the original inhabitants of this land have always said, "We belong to the land, and we have been called to care for it.".

To put it another way, we have been given a garden to live in, and to care for, if we abuse and exploit it, then a day of reckoning will come.

Addendum: Forest Management

Many years ago, I remember my father-in-law, who was a 'forest manager' in the Drake area of NSW, talking about how they managed fire by keeping the forest clean, and how they established and maintained rainforest corridors throughout the landscape as safe haven for wildlife and as barriers to wild fires. Fifty years ago they seen to have had some good ideas.