VFF water council chair Andrew Leahy said despite multiple attempts by the VFF to meet with the Commonwealth, Ms Plibersek’s key water adviser and Murray-Darling Basin Authority staff visited Shepparton last week without meeting farmers.
“There is no group more impacted by the Basin Plan than farmers and the Commonwealth has chosen to ignore us,” he said.
“Farmers are central to the discussion around water in the Murray-Darling Basin.
“It’s completely unacceptable that despite multiple attempts to open discussion with decision makers, farmers continue to be ignored.
“It’s a slap in the face when we’ve previously invited the minister to northern Victoria and also offered to fly to Canberra to meet with her and discuss concerns with the Basin Plan.”
Mr Leahy said the government had an “apparent lack of interest in how the Basin Plan” was impacting farmers.
“We thought the Federal Government would have been keen to understand how their decision to buy back water would drive up costs for farmers and the potential flow-on impacts for food prices,” he said.
“Farmers have long been saying the impacts on the region have been severe and we now have independent research to support this.
“The Victorian Government’s recent look at the socio-economic impacts of the plan in the southern basin has found that water buybacks for the 450GL, and any shortfall, could result in a $900 million loss in the value of agriculture across the southern basin.
“The Federal Government cannot ignore the facts of this reputable report and we won’t accept the consequences for farmers.”
Mr Leahy said the organisation was requesting an urgent meeting, with the offer to talk still on the table.
The minister’s office was contacted for comment.
