THE Victorian Farmers Federation (VFF) has warned that jobs across regional Victoria will be lost if Labor’s policy for water recovery is implemented under the Murray-Darling Basin Plan.
VFF president Emma Germano said Federal Labor’s five-point policy showed a total misunderstanding of the basin plan and a total disregard for jobs in regional communities.
“Mr Albanese’s plan for pushing on with the 450GL up-water target will result in buybacks and will suck more water out of irrigated agriculture. We know what this does because we’ve seen it before – it kills jobs and kills regional communities.”
VFF Water Council chair and Murrabit farmer Andrew Leahy said Mr Albanese and his team had shown they did not understand the plan and had failed to consult basin communities.
“The recovery of the 450GL upwater target was never guaranteed in legislation and was always subject to socio-economic neutrality.
“This was later reaffirmed with the socioeconomic test that was unanimously agreed by basin state and federal governments at the 2018 Ministerial Council meeting.
“The 450GL can only be recovered if there are no negative social economic outcomes.
“Section 6.04 of the basin plan sets out legislated water recovery of 2750GL.”
