Berrigan Shire Mayor Matthew Hannan has called for more consultation with local regional communities when it comes to water management.
Cr Hannan said water management decisions made over the years left a lot to be desired and that successive governments needed to achieve a balance that could protect the environment and provide water for farmers rather than take the easy option.
According to Cr Hannan one such ‘easy option’ which had locals concerned were water buybacks, which had historically caused social and economic damage.
“The Murray-Darling Basin Authority’s own profiling showed a population decrease in the Berrigan Shire community of more than 20 per cent from 2001 to 2016. In the five years from 2011 to 2016 — the initial years of Basin Plan implementation — we had a total area workforce decrease of 39.9 per cent,” Cr Hannan said.
A 2017 report recorded the Basin Plan had cost the region $190 million a year, with the loss of an estimated 678 jobs.
Cr Hannan said that governments often failed to understand the knock-on effects their policies had.
“With fewer workers on our farms and reduced farm income, it flows through to every aspect of our community.”
This doesn’t just include jobs and the local economy but also the social fabric of communities who suffer as people leave to seek a life elsewhere.
“If we reduce the amount of food grown in Australia, a consequence will be reduced supply and increased demand. At a difficult time for households, do we want to further exacerbate the cost-of-living crisis?”
Cr Hannan believes the past few years had been good for the Berrigan Shire, with a surge of both tourists and new residents, and wants this to continue.
“The council and our communities have worked extremely hard to overcome the challenges we faced during the early years of the Basin Plan and the subsequent reduction of available water to grow food and fibre,” he said.