Farmers Say Labor Fails Communities as Deadline for Murray Darling Basin Plan Looms

Australian Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek speaks during House of Representatives Question Time at Parliament House in Canberra on Feb. 15, 2023. AAP Image/Lukas Coch

Australia’s water minister has announced another round of water buybacks from farmers as the 2024 deadline looms for federal Labor to meet targets under the Murray Darling Basin Plan.

The announcement, which was made on Feb. 22, ends weeks of speculation about the return of water buybacks. Buybacks were limited by the former Coalition government back in 2015 when farmers argued their case against the move for causing a range of problems in farming communities.

“The announcement of a strategic water purchasing program and framework to bridge the gap is an important step forward in continuing to return water to the environment and delivering upon the Australian Government’s commitment to complete the Basin Plan in full,” according to Feb. 22 media release from the Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water (DCCEEW).

To “bridge the gap,” a total of 49.2 gigalitres will be purchased from seven catchments across the basin. Six of these catchments will come from Queensland and New South Wales, according to the Department.

Of the 49.2 gigalitres required, 46 gigalitres will be comprised of surface water and 3.2 gigalitres that of groundwater.

While federal Labor said it remains interested in receiving water through “feasible, non-purchase-based projects,” it said that the absence of other feasible projects has made water buybacks “the most effective and efficient method to achieve the target.”

“The Basin Plan is considered vitally important for the economic and environmental sustainability of the whole Murray–Darling Basin (Basin) and to assist communities, industries and the environment to survive through a changing climate, including droughts, which are predicted to occur more often and with greater severity.”

However, Victorian Farmers Federation (VFF) said federal Labor’s plan to buy back water under the Murray-Darling Basin Plan ignores the evidence of how the scheme will impact farming communities.

“The Commonwealth’s plan to buy back water will not only price farmers out of the water market, but it will also result in less jobs in regional communities and will increase the price of food for all Australians,” VFF Water Council Chair Andrew Leahy said in a Feb. 23 media statement.

Leahy said that while buybacks had only been announced for Queensland, NSW, and the ACT, Victorian and South Australian farmers would still be impacted.

“We operate in a connected market, and the 10GL earmarked to be bought out of the NSW Murray will result in less water being available to irrigators across the Southern Basin. We know it won’t stop there with the government saying it will look to buyback water to recover the 450GL.”

History and Controversy of Water Buybacks

Water buybacks have been a controversial issue since the Murray Darling Basin Plan was legislated in 2012, with Victoria, New South Wales (NSW), the federal opposition, National Farmers Federation and the National Irrigators Council staunchly against the move.

In 2008, then-water minister Penny Wong announced the federal government’s $50 million allocation to purchase water from irrigators and farmers, which was a “downpayment on the future of the Murray River” and a “first” in the nation’s history, reported the ABC.

However, there were community concerns over job losses due to the department’s choice to purchase water of the best value. Then from 2015, direct negotiation between the department and entitlement holders was utilised.

Federal Water Minister Tanya Plibersek has previously said that voluntary buybacks are “on the table” in relation to the Murray-Darling Basin Plan, which Plibersek has also hinted at extending. She said the 2024 deadline in delivering the 450 gigalitres, through efficiency measures, in full by June 2024 was “next to impossible.”

Then in October 2022, Federal Labor’s Federal Budget allocated an undisclosed amount to water-saving targets for the Murray-Darling Basin. It was reported back then that funding could be used by the Commonwealth to purchase water from farmers.

Under the plan, the basin states agreed to remove 2,750 gigalitres of water from irrigated agriculture and relocate that back into the basin by 2024.

Over the past decade, more than 2,100 gigalitres have been relocated back into the environment.

Additionally, under the plan, an additional 450 gigalitres of water is to be recovered through “efficiency measures,” which is also expected to be completed by 2024. However, only five gigalitres of water have been recovered under this measure.

‘Not Discretionary, Not a Choice’: South Australian Water Minister

Meanwhile, South Australia’s Water Minister Susan Close has admitted that the slim chances of meeting the 450 gigalitre target are both devastating and unsurprising.

“It’s not discretionary. It’s not a choice,” Close told the 7.30 report.

“South Australia only signed up to the Murray-Darling Basin Plan, when the 450 gigalitres was added to it.”

Additionally, the Murray Darling Basin Authority’s Chief Executive, Andrew McConville, said in November 2022 that the vital projects required to meet the Basin plan’s proposed targets will not be completed by the 2024 deadline.

Plibersek told 7.30 that farmers had been approached by the government with the prospect of selling water entitlements.

“Having environmental water to release when the environment’s under pressure makes all the difference. It’s what’s protecting our native fish and our native birds,” she said.

“Without it, you would see extinctions on a mass scale.

“If I have to achieve the objectives of the Murray-Darling Basin Plan with the largest share of buybacks, then so be it.”

The Murray Darling Basin Authority previously told The Epoch Times that achieving the 450 gigalitres needs to be done.

“[O]nly then will we see a step change in the environmental health of the Basin.”

However, both the NSW and Victorian governments have not agreed to the water buyback scheme.

On Feb. 21, NSW’s Water Minister Kevin Anderson said basin State and Territory Ministers must determine a new pathway for delivering water recovery targets.

“There is no escaping the fact that buying this amount of water would devastate our agricultural sector and our regional communities at a time when food prices are skyrocketing. We have seen first-hand the impact that Commonwealth buyback programs have had before and will not stand by and watch this happen again.

Jan Beer, a representative from the Upper Murray River Catchment Association in Victoria, previously told The Epoch Times that the economic impacts of the water buybacks would be “enormous” and has urged both Victoria and NSW to withdraw from the Basin Plan.

Basin, State and Territory ministers will meet in Sydney on Feb. 24.