VICTORIA will be more heavily targeted by the federal government's $3.1 billion water buyback regime, as the Commonwealth seeks to align the buybacks with last week's reform blueprint for the Murray-Darling river system.
Subscribe now for unlimited access to all our agricultural news
across the nation
or signup to continue reading
The woman in charge of the buyback program, federal Environment Department assistant secretary Mary Harwood, told a public meeting in Shepparton that the buyback program would be ''refined'' in light of last week's ''Guide to the Murray Darling Basin Plan''.
The buyback program has been under way for two years, and the Commonwealth has spent close to $2 billion of the $3.1 billion fund, yielding close to 1000 billion litres of water entitlement from all over the Murray-Darling Basin.
But last week's blueprint made it clear that the bulk of water needed to revive the ailing waterway would come from a small number of major rivers: Victoria's Goulburn, Broken and Murray rivers, and the Murrumbidgee in southern New South Wales.
Ms Harwood said the remaining money in the buyback fund would be spent with this in mind.
''We will be refining the water purchases in light of the pattern of where the sustainable diversion limit changes may be,'' she said.
Victoria was accused by other states of failing to contribute its fair share to the early stages of the buyback process, as controversial water trading limits in Victoria hampered the amount of water that could be bought back, and duly turned the buyback focus to other parts of the basin, such as northern NSW.
A compromise deal between Victoria and the Commonwealth has since enabled more Victorian water to be bought under the buyback program.
Victorian water is the most reliable in the Murray-Darling Basin - compared with the more ephemeral nature of most rivers in outback NSW and Queensland - and this makes it more valuable to both farmers and environmentalists.
At a public meeting attended by the Murray-Darling Basin Authority yesterday, Northern Victorian Irrigators spokesman Barry Croke said the reliable nature of water in north-eastern Victoria meant this was a region suited to agricultural development, not shutting down via buybacks.
''We've all invested because we knew it was a reliable system … when I look at these maps we have been targeted more than any other area,'' he said.
Authority chairman Mike Taylor said that reliable supply of water was precisely why Victoria had been targeted. ''That's the only places the water can be found to meet the environmental requirements,'' he said.
Statistics suggest the amount of water bought so far from the Goulburn-Broken district amounts to about a quarter or a third of the total amount that will need to come from the region.
Purchases in the Murray region, which includes both Victorian and NSW farmers, are also about a third of what the basin blueprint suggests will be needed.
The federal government has promised to provide any extra funds beyond the $3.1 billion that may be required to achieve the buybacks. Experts suggest this means an extra $2 billion may have to be found in Treasury coffers.
