A local submission is highlighting the potential for devastating impacts on communities in the Murray region of NSW if proposed legislation is not altered.
The Murray Regional Strategy Group has lodged the submission to a Senate Inquiry into the Albanese Government’s Water Amendment (Restoring Our Rivers) Bill 2023.
The Bill would change the bipartisan Murray-Darling Basin Plan, in particular guarantees made around water buybacks and protecting communities.
MRSG chair Geoff Moar said it is important that all politicians understand both the damage the Bill in its current form would have on our communities, and how unnecessary it is to go down this path with so many better solutions at the government’s disposal.
“Detailed research indicates the potential loss of $513 million a year in gross value irrigated agriculture production if the Bill is passed without amendments.
“This skyrockets to $855 million if you include the Bridge the Gap component (of the Basin Plan),” Mr Moar said, adding this equates to the loss of 900 on-farm jobs in Victoria alone.
“Using a conservative multiplier conversion, estimated recovery of the additional 450 gigalitres under the Bill would result in $1.8 billion in lost economic activity a year.
“It is hard to understand why any government would not accept the alternative, viable solutions that have been presented,.”
The MRSG submission to the Senate Inquiry points out that the government’s own data, through the Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics and Sciences (ABARES), states water buybacks have already driven up water prices to more than $200 a megalitre in three out of 10 years, and estimates taking another 450GL from farmers would push this to eight out of 10 years.
“This can make farming unviable in some instances and will reduce food supplies, which leads to higher prices at the supermarket for all Australians,” Mr Moar said.
He said communities were also concerned about elevated flood risks to private and public property when more water is held in upstream storages.
“We do not want policy that exacerbates flood risk and a repeat of the devastation we saw to livelihoods in the 2022 floods, but this seems inevitable unless changes are made to the Bill,” he said.
In its submission, MRSG outlined how environmental outcomes can be achieved through robust and cost-effective proposals, and by working with local knowledge and experience.
“Numerous ideas and options have been submitted by MRSG and other organisations through various government channels.
“We have given clear, proven direction on how to deliver environmental outcomes without destroying food production and rural communities.
“There are projects which could be replicated across the entire Basin, and all that is needed is a government prepared to work with us on their implementation.
“The current approach which would see the New South Wales Murray decimated environmentally, socially and economically for nothing more than political point scoring is unacceptable.”