The storm of anti-rural rhetoric over the Murray-Darling Basin Plan needs to stop.
Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce has copped a fair amount of criticism for his stance on the basin plan – mainly from the Labor Party and mainly because he intends to stick to the original plan passed through Parliament by the Labor government in 2012.
Everyone agreed at the time to support a clause in the plan to recover an additional 450GL of water for the environment if there are no socio-economic impacts on basin communities.
So let’s be clear; what is currently being debated isn’t an alteration to the plan.
Mr Joyce is applying the legislation as it was intended, which is to provide balance between the environmental needs of the basin against the damage to rural communities caused by water recovery.
A recent review of the northern basin identified considerable social and economic impacts as a result of the plan, and a review of the southern basin would do the same.
Rural communities have already seen significant impacts through the loss of irrigation water.
How many more jobs, farms and towns will be lost if the agreement, reached to provide some balance in the plan, is ignored?
It’s hard for us to see how another 450GL of water could still be recovered – through any means – without causing further damage to our regional communities, which are supported by irrigation farming businesses.
Not to mention the capacity constraints of our river systems and additional damage to rural communities through flooding.
We all know there are constraints through the river system. In reality, we are looking down the barrel of further floods and damage to built and environmental assets if a further 450GL of water is pushed down an already choked network.
It’s also important we acknowledge another voice in the debate.
Victorian Water Minister Lisa Neville deserves credit for standing up for the rights of irrigators and communities in the southern basin by calling for socio-economic assessment work to be undertaken, allowing them the same opportunity for review that was given to the northern basin.
Ultimately, we all need to work together to roll out the basin plan to benefit our environment and rural communities.
Richard Anderson, Victorian Farmers Federation Water Council chair
