City of Greater Shepparton representatives have met with Federal Water Minister Tanya Plibersek again, but there was little sign she is giving way on her government’s hard line on the Murray-Darling Basin Plan.
The Federal Government wants to secure more water for the basin through buybacks, while the Shepparton officials have reminded her of the effect on the economy of rural communities.
City of Greater Shepparton Mayor Shane Sali participated in a roundtable with the board of the Murray Darling Association at its conference last week, where Ms Plibersek gave some information about compensation for communities affected by water taken out of the regional communities.
Cr Sali said there was very limited detail on what this support would be.
“We advocated strongly that we didn’t want water to leave our region,” he said.
Cr Sali gave the minister a personal invitation to visit the Shepparton region.
“We are hopeful of her making a trip to the city.”
Cr Geoff Dobson described how Victoria had already been a major contributor to environmental water for the basin.
“She is saying that buybacks are not her number one priority, it is infrastructure and other savings methods, but I think at the end of the day, buybacks are firmly on their agenda.”
Cr Dobson spoke about the impact of the loss of water from agriculture and the impact on food production.
“We are going to keep fighting.”
The officials met with Ms Plibersek after her speech at the Murray Darling Association annual conference in Murray Bridge, South Australia.
Both Ms Plibersek and Murray-Darling Basin Authority chief executive officer Andrew McConville spoke to the conference but neither mentioned that 2100 Gl has already been set aside for the basin environment under the plan.
Ms Plibersek has reacted to criticisms that recovery of the extra 450 Gl will affect food prices.
She said the impact is overstated and that many factors go into the cost of food, not just water.
She said frosts are estimated to cause losses of $700 million each year, yet when water recovery was at its highest in 2011 and 2012, the price of food and drinks actually decreased by 3.2 per cent.
Ms Plibersek said basin farmers have continued to thrive over a full decade of water recovery, a statement attacked by the VFF.
VFF Water Council chair Andrew Leahy said if 450 Gl is recovered from farmers as the Albanese Government is suggesting, it will have disastrous impacts on farmers, food production and regional jobs in the next drought.
“We know droughts cause catastrophic long-term impacts to those on the land,” Mr Leahy said.
“Orchards that take years to establish are destroyed, thousands of dairy cows are sent off to slaughterhouses, farmers go bankrupt and tragically, the mental health burden on some becomes too much.
“The 450 Gl reduction in the amount of water available for production will have a particularly savage effect during droughts, because the water transferred to the environmental water holder will be locked away for environmental use.
“In the drought of 2018, Victoria provided 73 per cent of the total environmental water. This results in Victoria carrying a proportionately greater economic impact of water purchases.”
Mr Leahy said it was frustrating Ms Plibersek and the Albanese Government continue to spread mistruths on water recovery for the 450 Gl.
“The truth is her own department website produces a summary table of all recoveries and it clearly states 12.2 Gl has been recovered with a further 13.8 Gl under contract. That’s a total of 26 Gl towards the 450 Gl, not the 2 Gl she keeps suggesting.”