(From left) VFF president Brett Hosking, Natalie Akers, Victorian Water Minister Gayle Tierney, VFF Water Council chair Andrew Leahy, UDV president Bernie Free, ADF president Ben Bennett, and ADF CEO Steve Sheridan.
Water policy was top of the agenda for the VFF’s meetings with state and federal MPs last week.
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On Tuesday, February 11, VFF and Australian Dairy Farmers leadership met with Victorian Water Minister Gayle Tierney.
The following day, VFF representatives went to Canberra to meet with Coalition MPs.
At the meeting with Ms Tierney were VFF president Brett Hosking, UDV president Bernie Free, VFF Water Council chair Andrew Leahy and Tallygaroopna dairy farmer Natalie Akers, as well as ADF president Ben Bennett and ADF chief executive officer Steve Sheridan.
Ms Akers said the group congratulated Ms Tierney on her statement to parliament on February 6 where she made it very clear that “there may have been a change in minister, but there is no change in Victoria’s position and we oppose untargeted, non-strategic buybacks”.
She said the minister in her speech highlighted the prospectus developed by the Victorian Government last year, which sets out a roadmap of working with local communities to “right-size” the Goulburn-Murray Water footprint.
“We invited the minister to northern Victoria and she was keen to head up north and learn about our issues; she was also very interested to learn of the outcomes of our meetings in Canberra the following day,” Mr Leahy said.
“It was a great opportunity to meet with the minister and highlight the concerns facing those in northern Victoria around the basin plan as well as highlight issues in the south-west.
“It was a good first step in getting to know our new water minister and we look forward to continuing a strong working relationship.”
Much discussion focused on the drought situation facing south-west Victoria and potential lack of stock water in the Heytesbury area and potential infrastructure solutions.
(From left) Federal Nationals Leader David Littleproud, Andrew Leahy and Natalie Akers from the VFF, and Federal Member for Nicholls Sam Birrell.
In Canberra on Wednesday, February 12, Federal Member for Nicholls Sam Birrell organised a series of meetings for Mr Leahy and Ms Akers.
They met with Federal Nationals Leader David Littleproud, Shadow Federal Water Minister Perin Davey and other National and Liberal MPs: Senator Bridget McKenzie, Anne Webster, Matt Canavan, Sussan Ley, Dave Sharma and Keith Wolahan.
Ms Akers said the meetings provided a good opportunity to highlight Victoria’s position on the Murray-Darling Basin Plan, particularly leading into a federal election.
Mr Leahy said it was a great opportunity to get to Canberra and put forward the views and concerns of Victoria.
“With a change in government looking possible at the upcoming federal election, it was great to discuss with the Shadow Water Minister Perin Davey the problems with the basin plan and the changes required moving forward,” he said.
“We need water buybacks to cease — they kill rural communities.
“We need a greater focus on environmental outcomes rather than just focusing on volumes of water, we need a greater focus on rural and regional communities and we need to ensure some firm parameters are set around the Murray-Darling Basin Authority before the commence the basin plan review.”
(From left) Shadow Federal Water Minister Perin Davey, Andrew Leahy and Natalie Akers from the VFF, and Federal Member for Nicholls Sam Birrell.
(From left) Natalie Akers, Anne Webster, Bridget McKenzie, Andrew Leahy and Sam Birrrell.
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