NSW Farmers says it’s clear the Federal Government will use water buybacks as a devastating sledgehammer to complete the Basin Plan.
The Productivity Commission’s Murray Darling Basin Plan Implementation Review backed further water buybacks, but downplayed the impact on farm production, food security and economic performance.
NSW Farmers Water Taskforce Chair Richard Bootle said it was time to put the sledgehammer back in the rack, because water buybacks were a blunt instrument that would hurt farmers and basin communities.
“Basin communities have sent a clear message to the Federal Government that they oppose buybacks and this rewrite of the Basin Plan, because they are living through the negative impacts,” Mr Bootle said.
“While this review has been welcomed by the usual conga line of campaigners whose bloody-minded pursuit of buybacks is both short-sighted and arrogant, the people on the ground are vehemently opposed.
“There are far better options to deliver the Basin Plan than buybacks, and we want the Federal Government to use those tools instead.”
While the review acknowledged the Basin Plan was required to give critical human water needs the highest priority, it only looked at drinking water – not food production – and absolved the federal government of any responsibility to do more to meet those needs. However, it did find basin governments would need to assist communities to transition to a future with less available water, while also finding existing funding was “not sufficient”.
Mr Bootle said more water could be secured by investing in projects that would remove the need for costly buybacks.
“When the Basin Plan was first put in place the idea was that they would consider social, economic and environmental impacts, but we’ve seen the first two ignored,” Mr Bootle said.
“To date the Basin Plan has resulted in economic hardship for communities, a reduction in agricultural production, and man-made droughts and floods for ‘environmental outcomes’.
“The Federal Government needs to stop and listen to farmers before going down the path of more buybacks given Australia is drying out by the day.”
