VICTORIA will carry a heavy load under plans to return the Murray River to health, with cuts to water extraction of up to 45 per cent slated for some parts of the state's north.
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On a day when farming groups urged federal Water Minister Tony Burke to intervene to save rural Australia from decimation, Victorian towns along the Campaspe, Loddon, Kiewa, Broken and Ovens rivers were told their irrigation sectors faced massive cuts.
Those five river districts were warned cuts to extraction would range between 38 and 45 per cent, despite several of them being virtually bone dry for much of the past five years.
The percentage cuts proposed for Victoria's two most significant irrigation districts, the Goulburn and Murray regions, were not as big but still significant, ranging from 27 to 37 per cent.
But as larger, more populous regions using more water, the Goulburn and Murray regions will make the largest contribution to Victoria's share of environmental water, with both likely to surrender between 400 and 600 billion litres to the environment.
Victorian Water Minister Tim Holding said he expected the basin plan to look very different after the consultation phase. ''We need to look closely to see if there are better ways to achieve improved environmental outcomes than what the Murray Darling Basin Authority has proposed,'' he said.
Victorian opposition spokesman Peter Walsh said the cuts could put food security at risk, while Victorian Farmers' Federation president Andrew Broad warned the numbers were far too high. ''Cuts of this size do not represent a fair balance between environmental requirements and socio-economic needs. They are indicative of a plan which will work against the best interests of rural Victoria,'' he said.
National Irrigators Council chief Danny O'Brien declared the cuts to be a ''dagger through the heart'' of rural Australia, and he reminded the Water Minister that he had the power to intervene. ''[Mr Burke] should be prepared to do that,'' he said.
Even though the basin authority advocated cuts near the bottom of the acceptable environmental range, Mr O'Brien was adamant that they were still too high.
''The lower end of the range is still very high for our communities,'' he said.
Australian Conservation Foundation spokeswoman Dr Arlene Buchan said she would have preferred the authority to be advocating at the higher end of the environmental range, but she said she looked forward to engaging in more talks before a plan for the river was finalised.
Mr Burke sought to calm the waters last night, saying the guide was just the first step of a two-year process.
Signalling a political fight over Murray-Darling reform, federal opposition water spokesman Barnaby Joyce said the proposed cuts would kill rural communities and push up food prices.
David Crombie, president of the National Farmers' Federation, said the report's recommendations were ''even worse than we expected''. He said he suspected the water cuts could be even more severe after the consultation period.
He called on the basin authority to recalculate its figures over job losses.
