Agriculture
21 July, 2024
Webster concerns with risks of 'carefree spin'
BUYBACKS would shut down parts of the regional economy, said Mallee MP Anne Webster. “Minister Plibersek claims she has considered the social and economic impacts of the buyback program despite the Government having no idea where it will be buying...
BUYBACKS would shut down parts of the regional economy, said Mallee MP Anne Webster.
“Minister Plibersek claims she has considered the social and economic impacts of the buyback program despite the Government having no idea where it will be buying water from,” she said.
“Labor’s carefree spin is the consequence of the Albanese Government ripping up bipartisanship on the Basin Plan, teaming up with their fellow inner-city ideologues, the Greens, to remove the socio-economic impact test.
“That test had been a bipartisan measure introduced when Labor was in government, to shield communities from adverse impacts. Now, the safety barrier has been removed and economic and social damage can wreak carnage through Basin communities.
“Farmers have been selling water for a long time, but the insidious aspect that water buybacks bring is that water leaves irrigation communities and is stockpiled by the Commonwealth Environmental Water Holder, who have been regularly carrying over substantial volumes of water because they have more than they need.
“Buybacks reduce the number of irrigators in a district, culling economic activity and leaving the remaining farmers with even higher costs to maintain irrigation district infrastructure.”
Gannawarra Shire Mayor Ross Stanton said the last time the Commonwealth did open-tender water buybacks in their region, the region lost around 1600 jobs, hundreds of millions of dollars in production, and the price of water for agriculture went up $72 per megalitre.
A 2022 Victorian Government report suggested that if 372.3 gigalitres was bought back from the southern basin, it could risk 8700 hectares of plantings and could lead to a $400 million decrease in the value of local farm production, according to Dr Webster.