Gannawarra Shire Mayor Ross Stanton has seen water disappearing from the irrigation channels and along with it, families moving out of the region.
He delivered a personal, and at times, emotional perspective on the impact of water transfers to the environment at a water summit in Bendigo, in front of the Victorian Water Minister, Harriet Shing and a range of community leaders, brought together by the Goulburn Murray Irrigation District water leadership group.
Born in Cohuna, Cr Stanton spent 30 years working for G-MW, married, raised a family and became part of the fabric of a rural community.
The president of his local Murrabit Football Netball Club, he has seen school enrolments drop, sporting clubs disappear and irrigation deliveries shrink.
“I don’t want to be the president who closes the doors of my club and cuts that tapestry of connections that support my community through thick and thin,” Cr Stanton said.
He was directing his criticisms towards the Federal Government, which is embarking on a water recovery for the Murray-Darling Basin through water buybacks, which he says will worsen the “Swiss cheese” effect, pulling water randomly out of farms.
“When I first started at G-MW in 1989, the Torrumbarry Irrigation Area had around 400,000 megalitres tied to land, this was pre unbundling and water trade, we delivered an average of 500,000 Ml/year, with the record year at over 600,000 Ml,” he said.
“Today, Torrumbarry has around 189,000 Ml, tied to land, and average deliveries of 250,000 Ml/year.
“Minister Plibersek signed off on the current buyback project saying she has considered the social and economic impacts.
“Well, I can tell you that the advice she based that on was wrong.
“The government’s economists sitting in Canberra with their calculators, didn’t even bother to come and talk to anyone in Murrabit, or Shepparton, or Rochester.
“They calculated the farm gate and the water price impacts and then the bureaucrats in the department, who also didn’t come and talk to us, by the way, said: it’s fine.
“I have seen first-hand what buybacks did to our region last time. We lost jobs — 1900 jobs were lost due to buybacks, according to the Murray-Darling Basin Authority.
“We lost $550 million per year in irrigated output,” he said.
Cr Stanton pointed to declining enrolments at the Kerang Technical High School and the Cohuna Secondary College, which reflected the loss of families in the municipality.
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