DISAPPOINTMENT, blackmail and taking the easy way out.
These are just a few of the terms used by some irrigation farmers to describe their feelings towards the Federal Government following the announcement of a new Murray-Darling Basin Plan agreement earlier in the week.
Federal Water Minister Tanya Plibersek believes the new agreement, which excludes Victoria, comes at a critical time for the basin environment and communities.
“The Murray-Darling pumps life into the heartland of our country,” she said.
“If we don’t act now to preserve it, our basin towns will be unprepared for drought, our native animals will face the threat of extinction, our river ecosystems will risk environmental collapse, and our food and fibre production will be unsecure and sustainable.”
Under the new agreement, the federal, NSW, South Australian, Queensland and ACT government will seek to:
- Allow Commonwealth buybacks of irrigation licences to return 450 gigalitres of water to the environment
- Extend the deadline for recovering the 450GL target from June 2024 to December 2027
- Grant an 18-month extension to state-run water-saving projects from June 2024 to December 2026
- Allow for new water-saving projects to be established and completed by December 2026.
Victorian Farmers Federation Water Council chair and Murrabit dairy farmer Andrew Leahy told The Guardian that the announcement reversed Labor’s 2012 promise that the 450GL would not be achieved through buybacks.
“It’s taking the easy way out,” Mr Leahy said.
“It’s putting an unknown into the industry, and we don’t know where it will end up.”
Mr Leahy believes the Federal Government is also effectively trying to blackmail the Victorian Government into signing on to the new agreement.
“The blackmail out of that is, from Victoria’s point of view, the government are not going to extend the Sustainable Diversion Limit Adjustment Mechanism projects, which were originally due at the end of the year,” he said.
“The truth is that the Productivity Commission reported five years ago that these projects would need more time, and that was before their delay due to the COVID pandemic and the floods last year.
“Extending the time frame is a no-brainer, but to blackmail Victoria to sign up to buybacks to get more time for the SDLAM projects just shows how low the Commonwealth is willing to go.”
The legislation that is necessary to implement the new agreement, which includes amendments to the Water Act 2007 and the original basin plan, will be introduced into Parliament by the Federal Government in the coming weeks.
