The National Irrigators Council and Shadow Federal Water Minister Perin Davey have both taken aim at what has been described as ‘premature boasting’ on the government’s water buybacks process.
Federal Water Minister Tanya Plibersek last week announced that voluntary water purchase open tender has received more than 1000 responses across the southern Murray-Darling Basin, “far exceeding the volume of water required”.
The tender, which closed in September 2024, sought to purchase eligible water rights for up to 70 gigalitres of surface water per year across five catchments in the southern connected Basin.
Responses are being evaluated and “value for money offers” will be accepted from December 2024.
National Irrigators Council CEO Zara Lowien said irrigators called out the boasting of having “1000 willing sellers” as a “political stunt”.
“The last time Minister Plibersek announced a buyback tender round had been over-subscribed, the government later rejected 72 per cent of the offers, contracting only a small proportion of the reported offers (26GL out of 90 GL), mostly due to value for money concerns,” she said.
“Past experience shows us that people putting their hand up to sell their water to the government is really no indication on actual progress. You can have 1000 willing sellers, but that doesn’t matter if the buyer cannot proceed due to procurement guidelines.
“Making this announcement of ‘1000 willing sellers’ is a continuation of a political smokescreen as the Albanese Government continues to embellish their efforts on implementing the Murray-Darling Basin Plan without any contracts or evidence.”
Ms Lowien’s criticisms have been echoed by Senator Davey, who accused the Labor Government of making premature announcements on water recovery without any consideration of what impact it may have on the water market.
“Just like last time, the minister is counting her chickens before the eggs have hatched,” Senator Davey said.
“Last October (2023) the minister declared that the 250 tender responses could net twice as much as the 44 gigalitres of water needed, yet at the end of the process only 26 gigalitres was actually purchased.
“Announcing these figures before contracts are finalised is premature and misleading, and is nothing more than over-enthusiastic spin.
“We know from previous buyback tenders undertaken by Labor that most offers do not result in water being bought.”
Senator Davey said people considering whether to participate in the current expression of interest process for a water tender in 2025 will be considering what impact the minister’s announcement may have on tomorrow’s prices.
Voluntary purchase is just one of the ways the government is working to recover 450GL of water, with Ms Plibersek saying the government is prioritising non-purchase options.
The Resilient Rivers Program provides more than $494 million for water saving infrastructure projects nominated by states.
One construction project, one water saving program and four feasibility projects, worth close to $90 million, have already been approved with more in the pipeline.
The program also makes another $3 million available to states to develop land and water partnership proposals.
Earlier this year, the government made a record $300 million available to Basin state governments to support jobs and businesses in communities affected by voluntary water purchase.
Ms Lowien said, however, “the governments messaging isn’t being backed by any action that we can see”.
“Nearly 12-months since the Restoring Our Rivers Bill became law, we have no real evidence that governments have made genuine progress towards implementing the Basin Plan, other than inflated media announcements, which we know, not all will turn into contracts.
“We call on the minister to stop putting up political smokescreens and provide real transparency on the governments progress on the Murray-Darling Basin Plan.
“Last year’s amendments were also meant to provide greater accountability and transparency with annual reporting to parliament, which we are yet to see.
“We’ve been warning governments not to waste the timeline extension. Everyone in the basin deserves better than misleading statements, we need regular, honest and accurate indication on how all the government’s Basin Plan programs are tracking.”