The water industry has reacted with outrage and pointed to the broken promise made by Federal Water Minister Tanya Plilbersek’s federal department.
The ‘Restoring Our Rivers: 2024 Selected Catchments’ open tender will seek to purchase up to 70 Gl of water rights in NSW, Victoria and South Australia from July 15.
Water industry stakeholders point to the government’s own documents, which say:
“This tender seeks to exclude areas with a high concentration of network customers. This will provide more time for irrigation infrastructure operators to consider water recovery in their networks as outlined in the Framework for delivering the 450 Gl.”
VFF Water Council chair Andrew Leahy said the Commonwealth promised they would stay out of irrigation districts in the initial program.
“They lived up to that promise for NSW and SA but have broken it with Victoria,” he said.
“Victoria is the only state that will see water purchases in an irrigation network; the purchases in NSW and SA are from diverters only.
“Why does the Commonwealth want to keep punishing Victoria when we have contributed the most towards the [Murray-Darling] Basin Plan? How much pain do they think we can take?
“This is totally outrageous, unfair and without justification as to why Victoria’s Murray irrigation district will be hit with buybacks when they promised they wouldn’t.”
Mr Leahy said there was no mention of the environmental benefits the government was hoping to achieve.
“The Commonwealth has not identified where they want to purchase the 70 Gl, hypothetically, it could all come from one area,” he said.
“The most recent reports on Commonwealth water recovery shows that they have purchased 170 Gl more out of Victoria than southern NSW and 440 Gl more out of Victoria than South Australia.
“The ACCC announced this week that if buybacks occur within irrigation networks where costs are fixed, remaining farmers will face increased water charges.
“The Commonwealth doesn’t care about the inequity of their announcement and that only Victorian farmers will face increased charges.
“The Victorian Government announced an approach to work with communities across nine catchments in a strategic way to find additional water for the environment, that minimises impacts, the Commonwealth has ignored this for farmers along the Murray River,” Mr Leahy said.
“Buybacks kill our communities, and the Commonwealth seems happy to pick off Victoria and let our irrigation network crumble.
“Why is there no mention of buybacks in the northern basin where the Darling River has severe environmental issues?”
National Irrigators’ Council CEO Zara Lowien accused the Federal Government of rushing to buybacks knowing all too well it will have the most negative impacts on communities and drive-up water prices.
“Minister Plibersek has played lip-service to basin communities and the requirement to consider socio-economic impacts,” Mrs Lowien said.
The Goulburn Murray Irrigation District Water Leadership Group has also been critical of the decision and pointed to earlier commitments not to target major irrigation networks.
Victorian Water Minister Harriet Shing expressed her deep disappointment to see the Commonwealth’s announcement of a 70 Gl open tender water purchase program.
“I am calling on the Commonwealth to provide Victoria and the community with the information that was considered before this program was approved,” Ms Shing said.
“At the basin Ministerial Council, I raised the serious concerns that Victorian communities have about the one-off allocation of $300 million to be split between all basin states where buybacks occur.
“This funding won’t go anywhere close to assisting communities with the long-term transition and the loss of jobs and economic activity in affected communities with these buybacks, and it won’t provide the certainty that basin communities deserve.”
Questions about the decision put to Ms Plibersek’s office by Country News were referred to the federal water department, DCCEEW, which gave the following explanation:
“To minimise impact on areas with a high concentration of Irrigation Infrastructure Operator customers in Victoria, while still starting water recovery in 2024, only water users who take water from within trading zones 6 and 7 of the Victorian Murray and those within the Ovens system will be in scope.”
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