Northern Victorian members of parliament have attacked the Federal Government’s move to start water buybacks in tenders from next week.
State Member for Northern Victoria Wendy Lovell described the move as a betrayal which would result in higher costs for irrigators, and Federal Member for Nicholls Sam Birrell described it as an act of “national self-harm”.
“What we had feared for so long will now become a reality,” Mr Birrell said on Monday, July 8.
“The livelihoods of basin communities will be severely impacted, and the nation’s ability to grow its own food will be diminished.
“The tragedy of this is that it is based on politics, not science.
“There was an understanding that any water buybacks would come from river diverters, but now we see the Commonwealth trying to buy water out of irrigation networks which threatens the viability of the entire system.
“This policy is another example of the Albanese Government's total disregard for agriculture in Australia, they deserve to be turfed out at the next election for their attack on Australian farmers and the economy.”
Ms Lovell said Federal Water Minister Tanya Plibersek had broken a commitment to exclude irrigators from the initial tender, and would now be trying to buy water from irrigation districts in northern Victoria, along the Murray River.
“Victoria has already done more than its fair share of recovering water for environmental use, having contributed 440 Gl more than South Australia, and 170 Gl more than NSW,” she said.
“Yet the Federal Labor Government’s latest plan does not apportion additional recovery fairly between states, but merely seeks to buy the cheapest water wherever it is, which could hurt Victoria further.
“The water minister claims to want to minimise socio-economic impacts, but the irrigation districts targeted for water purchases include those identified as among the most socio-economically vulnerable to buybacks in a recent report by the government’s own ABARES agency.”
Ms Lovell said buybacks will increase the cost of water, the cost of maintaining the irrigation network, and flow on to increasing the cost of food for everyone.
“The Federal Labor Government pretends to care about the social and economic impacts of purchasing water, but then targets irrigation districts that are among the most vulnerable to buybacks,” she said.
“Victoria has done more than its fair share of returning water to the environment, and State Labor Minister Harriet Shing isn’t fighting hard enough to get fair treatment for Victorian farmers and irrigation communities.”