The South Australian Centre Alliance senator Rex Patrick is calling for cotton exports to be banned in an attempt to draw attention to the plight of the Murray-Darling river system and the over-extraction by irrigators.
The senator is preparing to introduce a bill when parliament resumes next week, and would impose a ban on exporting cotton in three years’ time.
Patrick says that 90% of the cotton grown in Australia is exported, and 20% of the basin water goes to facilitating cotton exports, and this is not in national interest.