Anne Webster, Member for Mallee
THIS week has driven home that Labor and the Greens do not understand nor care about Murray-Darling Basin communities.
Their unholy alliance has paved the way for Water Minister Tanya Plibersek’s Murray-Darling Basin Plan revision, which has passed the Senate this week.
The Labor-Greens deal mandates the full recovery of 450GL of additional environmental water by the end of 2027, despite the strong objections of the National and Victorian farmers’ federations and the Victorian Labor government.
Labor and their urban environmental-activist friends have thrown basin communities under the bus for votes in the inner cities.
It is clear that a few thousand votes in Adelaide is worth more to the Albanese government than communities like Swan Hill, Robinvale and Mildura, which produce 40 per cent of Australia’s food and fibre.
Bipartisanship has always been a hallmark of the basin plan, yet Labor have decided to trash the concept.
Reinstating voluntary water buybacks will devastate regional communities left behind when farmers sell their entitlements and leave the land.
Reduced horticulture shrinks our towns – local shops lose customers and may be forced to close. And make no mistake, it will reduce productivity and risks forcing Australians to buy imported fruit rather than fresh fruit from local growers.
The Labor and Greens’ new deal also fans the flames of Australia’s cost-of-living crisis.
Reducing water from the consumptive pool means farmers grow less food and fibre. With less supply, prices rise and that will cost families at the supermarket checkout when it comes time to put food on the table.
The fact is the Commonwealth Environmental Water Holder has not been able to use allocations in storage now. Yet this government wants to buy more water than it knows what to do with.
A Dutton-Littleproud government will leave no stone unturned to rectify the huge damage to regional communities this Labor-Greens deal will wreak.
Our irrigation communities must not be left high and dry.
