A campaign to grow awareness of the impact of the Federal Government’s water buyback scheme hopes to reach consumers throughout Victoria.
Food Needs Water! was launched in Shepparton on Thursday, November 16 and combines television advertisements featuring well-known community activist Charles Wooley with an interactive website.
The website focuses on the most northern local government areas in Victoria which are part of the Murray-Darling Basin.
Visitors can use the map to learn the export value of each food that is grown in any LGA and are invited to click a large blue button to show support for halting water buybacks.
Campaspe Shire councillor Tony Marwood said the campaign would create awareness in the greater community about the impact of less available water will have on food prices.
“Potentially if we lose 25 per cent of the water out of the region, then that’s a lot of water, which will affect lots of food and a lot of jobs,” Cr Marwood said.
“When the government started buybacks, the price of water doubled.
“Even though there’s an open and transparent market, it’s actually difficult to buy permanent water at the current price because people don’t want to sell it.
“A lot of farmers who retire are still hanging onto their water because they can trade on the temporary market.”
Committee for Greater Shepparton chief executive officer Linda Nieuwenhuizen said the Federal Government’s response to recent changes in the Murray-Darling Basin Plan legislation was crucial.
“The whole purpose of what we are doing is to make sure that members of parliament who are making decisions on this legislation understand there will be flow-on consequences from the policies they adopt,” she said.
Ms Nieuwenhuizen said the Victorian Government continued to be “very strong” in its opposition to the buybacks.
“A large part of that is because Victoria has been so effective in filling its obligations under the plan to date,” she said.
“We would have delivered 98 per cent of the infrastructure works.
“And we have delivered at least two thirds of any of the water that has been committed against the efficiency targets so that’s the extra 450 Gl we needed to save.
“Victoria has ticked the box on every one of those targets or at least exceeded the performance of the other states, so to then reset the plan and suggest that everyone is back to zero on a level playing field doesn’t stack up.”
Tallygaroopna dairy farmer Natalie Akers said the national buyback scheme is currently seeking to remove a further 750 Gl from the southern basin.
“That is the equivalent of one-and-a-half Sydney Harbours,” Mrs Akers said.
“Farmers have already given back four Sydney Harbours to the river system.
“Common sense would tell you that you just can’t keep taking water.
“This is a campaign that is trying to point out the obvious that we need water to grow food and we want to celebrate all the food that is grown right across all of northern Victoria.”
Mrs Akers said northern Victoria was punching “well above its weight”.
“I’ve crunched all the numbers and we make up 12 per cent of the Murray-Darling Basin but we produce 30 per cent of all of its agricultural output.
“We are a powerhouse of a region for food production and we need that water to keep food prices down.”