Southern Riverina Irrigators Urge Government To Look At Alternatives To Support Our Ability To Farm And Produce Food

NSW and Victoria Murray allocations face a new threat to reliability with the recent announcement by the Commonwealth Environmental Water Holder (CEWH) to shepherd water through Menindee Lakes and the South Australian border in breach of the Murray Darling Basin Agreement.

Southern Riverina Irrigators CEO Sophie Baldwin said while everyone supported the idea of a connected Darling Baaka for environmental purposes, it would come at a cost and again, southern basin irrigators would pay the price.

A recent statement from CEWH’s Simon Banks confirmed irrigators would lose allocation reliability stating that Southern basin users had benefited since 2020 when water recovered from the northern basin should be used to protect and restore the environment as always intended.

Ms Baldwin said irrigators had not benefitted from that recovery because it was simply the rules upon which the Basin Plan was modelled and drawn up.

Water is currently re-regulated at Menindee and shared between NSW and Victoria Murray.

According to Ms Baldwin, changing that rule, without a quid pro quo would result in dire impacts on the productive pool.

“Irrigation dependent rural communities are already under attack and threatened by a 450GL water buyback,” Ms Baldwin said.

Ms Baldwin said the Government must look at alternatives to continue to support our ability to farm and produce food.

“The last three decades of water management and policy have completely changed the way the system is run - a solution is to return the 696GL loss and dilution flows to Victoria Murray and NSW in exchange for 1721GL out of long-term average, annual inflows into Menindee Lakes,” Ms Baldwin said.

“This decouples southern basin irrigators from the Darling and allows CEWH and the MDBA to run whatever programs they like out of Menindee, who knows, they might even avoid further fish kills.”

She said it was important that stakeholders at least got in the room to have a conversation because ripping water way from the productive pool simply couldn’t continue.

“The Australian rice industry is hanging on by a thread, along with the dairy industry, and any further loss of water increases the cost for those who choose to stay,” Ms Baldwin said.

“This turns irrigators into stressed sellers, not voluntary sellers.

“Irrigation underpins many facets of the community and losing our ability to produce clean, green staple foods will impact investment, industry, manufacturing and employment.

“Cost of living pressure will continue and we will rely increasingly on imports which also present a biosecurity risk.

“Of course, we need to have a healthy and sustainable river system but we also need to have a balanced approach, supporting future food production - there has certainly been no acknowledgement irrigation is dual purpose water and supports biodiversity on farm and throughout the extensive delivery system.”

• Topics:

• Agriculture & Farming