An expansion of the Federal Government’s non-strategic buyback program is, “taking away water from farmers” Australian Dairy Farmers said.

In Parliament on Wednesday, November 12, Victorian Water Minister Gayle Tierney said the Commonwealth Water Minister Murray Watt made the announcement in Adelaide.

“The substance of it is the Australian Government will expand the non-strategic buyback program in the Southern Basin,” she said.

“This comes as a shock to all of us here in Victoria.

“This is a further 130 gigalitres of water purchases from the southern basin, including Victoria.

“Let me be clear, our position is unchanged, Victoria remains firmly opposed to non-strategic buybacks.”

The announcement included increasing the volume of water that may be purchased in the southern connected basin by 130Gl, bringing the total of all purchase programs to 300Gl.

Water bodies have their say

National Irrigators’ Council chief executive Zara Lowien said the announcement in Adelaide was a missed opportunity.

“It was a golden opportunity for the minister to join stakeholders, who were building agreement on several ways to move forwards with basin management,” Ms Lowien said.

“Instead, many felt it was a slap in the face.

“As more water, is not what the science says the environment needs most, and adding more, comes at a huge cost to the Australian Government, and our farming and rural communities, now facing less water and higher costs that are not being considered properly nor adequately addressed by the Sustaining Basin Communities program, as promised.”

G-MW chair Justin Hanney said buybacks continued to undermine the long-term viability of irrigation districts and regional towns and failed to deliver the balanced social, economic, and environmental outcomes intended under the Murray-Darling Basin Plan.

“Open-tender water purchases have had a big impact on communities in our region in the past,” Mr Hanney said.

“These non-strategic purchases create a Swiss cheese effect, where the patchy nature of the buybacks means we are delivering less water, but still have the same costs relating to infrastructure operation and maintenance.

“We need a strategic approach to buybacks that enables opportunities for the economic, and therefore social impacts, of water purchases to be minimised whilst considering environmental benefits.”

G-MW has previously raised concerns that bills could increase significantly for some customers under the buybacks.

The Goulburn Murray Irrigation District Water Leadership Forum co-chair Suzanna Sheed said the buybacks would “significantly damage” the agriculture sector.

"This decision is a devastating blow to our irrigation communities and regional economies,“ she said.

“It represents a complete disregard for the long-term viability of food production and the enormous investments made in irrigation infrastructure.”

How it will impact farmers

“Dairy farmers have already given up significant water rights since the millennium drought to help restore river health, yet are now being asked to cop even more pain for questionable gain,” ADF president Ben Bennett said.

“Our dairy farmers have done the heavy lifting to improve the basin’s environmental health.

“We’ve invested heavily in water efficiency and drought resilience and have a proud environmental history as being stewards of the land. But this announcement ignores those efforts and punishes us for it.

“Buybacks create insecurity and make food production unsustainable.”

Mr Bennett pointed to a recent report commissioned by Dairy Australia that warned of devastating economic impacts from more buybacks — warnings the government has effectively ignored.

“No further buybacks should proceed without a comprehensive assessment of the damage this announcement will do to our dairy farmers, processors and rural towns,” Mr Bennett said.

VFF water chair Andrew Leahy said the 130Gl taken from the southern basin would most likely impact Victoria the hardest.

“This latest move is unforgivable and will only worsen the relentless drain of water in Victoria’s irrigation heartland,” Mr Leahy said.

“It is unclear how much of the 130Gl will be purchased from Victoria, but given Victoria has one of the highest reliability water products in the basin, we no doubt will continue to be unfairly targeted, our water is like a magnet for Canberra.

“We shouldn’t be punished for managing our water efficiently, we’re not the easy target.”

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