THE federal opposition government must rule out water buybacks and meet its goal of delivering 450GL of environmental water to South Australia by targeting northern basin irrigators, says Independent MP for Mildura Ali Cupper.
Ms Cupper said water buybacks were “not an option” for water users in the southern Murray-Darling Basin and called on the federal opposition to ease community concerns by ruling out the option as soon as this week.
Member for Mallee Anne Webster called on the Labor leader Anthony Albanese to address how the federal opposition intends to deliver environmental flows to South Australia.
Labor leader Anthony Albanese and environment and water spokesperson Terri Butler recently announced the opposition’s plan to deliver 450GL in environmental flows to the South Australian end of the Murray River should the opposition win the May 21 election.
Labor has not released details about how the target will be achieved but has not ruled out buybacks of water.
“It is outrageous that southern basin irrigators would be targeted in the bid to deliver SA an additional 450GL of environmental water by 2024,” Ms Cupper said.
“The Federal Labor Opposition needs to get in front of the cameras this week and state unequivocally that there would be no buybacks of water under an Albanese Government.”
Dr Webster said the announce-ment “all but confirmed Labor will re-introduce water buybacks that have been so damaging to Murray-Darling Basin communities”.
“(Albanese) needs to stand up in towns like Swan Hill and Red Cliffs and explain how his plan will work,” Dr Webster said.
The member for Mallee said the Coalition Government had committed to no more buybacks, and called on Mr Albanese to “be honest … about Labor’s plans to take water away from growers”.
Ms Cupper urged the federal opposition to turn its attention to floodplain harvesting in the northern Murray-Darling Basin to recover environmental water.
“The obvious and rightful target should be the Northern irrigators who have effectively stolen more than 700GL from the system (as a long-term annual average) through the practice of illegal floodplain harvesting,” she said.
“Enforcing the legislative cap on floodplain harvesting – which is 64GL for NSW – would more than account for the additional 450GL we need to provide to South Australia.”
The legal extraction limit in the Murray-Darling Basin plan allows for 64GL of floodplain harvesting volume in NSW.
The NSW Government has come under fire for its plan to license more than four times that amount.
Minister Kevin Anderson proceeded with issuing licences to NSW border rivers and Gwydir Valley irrigators in February.
The NSW Government found in a 2021 report that floodplain harvesting diversions of water in the Gwydir Valley had increased by 53.3GL per year and that introducing harvesting licences would overall reduce water take in the valley.
However, a NSW Senate Inquiry report on floodplain harvesting in December called on the NSW Government to establish up-to-date modelling of total water diversions before issuing licences to address the problem.
Ms Cupper said she was not surprised the Coalition had allowed northern Basin irrigators to take water but said Labor’s Terri Butler had no “excuse”.
“Floodplain harvesting is primarily the domain of international agribusiness giants,” Ms Cupper said.
“These businesses often base themselves overseas in places like the Cayman Islands to avoid paying tax in Australia and grow mainly cotton which creates far less jobs than other agricultural industries.
“These are the guys that can afford the expensive excavation equipment to dam the floodplains for corporate use.
“Buybacks are simply not an option. Our community has gone through enough pain. If science is telling us the environment needs more water, I accept that. But go after the crooks and leave us alone.”
