130Gl buyback hike ‘punishes’ farmers: ADF

“The substance of it is the Australian Government will expand the non-strategic buyback program in the Southern Basin,” she said.

“This comes as a shock to all of us here in Victoria.

“This is a further 130 gigalitres of water purchases from the southern basin, including Victoria.

“Let me be clear, our position is unchanged, Victoria remains firmly opposed to non-strategic buybacks.”

The announcement included increasing the volume of water that may be purchased in the southern connected basin by 130Gl, bringing the total of all purchase programs to 300Gl.

“Dairy farmers have already given up significant water rights since the millennium drought to help restore river health, yet are now being asked to cop even more pain for questionable gain,” ADF president Ben Bennett said.

“Our dairy farmers have done the heavy lifting to improve the basin’s environmental health.

“We’ve invested heavily in water efficiency and drought resilience and have a proud environmental history as being stewards of the land. But this announcement ignores those efforts and punishes us for it.

“Buybacks create insecurity and make food production unsustainable.”

Mr Bennett pointed to a recent report commissioned by Dairy Australia that warned of devastating economic impacts from more buybacks — warnings the government has effectively ignored.

“No further buybacks should proceed without a comprehensive assessment of the damage this announcement will do to our dairy farmers, processors and rural towns,” Mr Bennett said.

VFF water chair Andrew Leahy said the 130Gl taken from the southern basin would most likely impact Victoria the hardest.

“This latest move is unforgivable and will only worsen the relentless drain of water in Victoria’s irrigation heartland,” Mr Leahy said.

“It is unclear how much of the 130Gl will be purchased from Victoria, but given Victoria has one of the highest reliability water products in the basin, we no doubt will continue to be unfairly targeted, our water is like a magnet for Canberra.

“We shouldn’t be punished for managing our water efficiently, we’re not the easy target.”

National Irrigators’ Council chief executive Zara Lowien said the announcement in Adelaide was a missed opportunity.

“It was a golden opportunity for the minister to join stakeholders, who were building agreement on several ways to move forwards with basin management,” Ms Lowien said.

“Instead, many felt it was a slap in the face.

“As more water, is not what the science says the environment needs most, and adding more, comes at a huge cost to the Australian Government, and our farming and rural communities, now facing less water and higher costs that are not being considered properly nor adequately addressed by the Sustaining Basin Communities program, as promised.”

State Member for Northern Victoria Wendy Lovell said the buybacks would impact the region greatly.

“These buybacks will reduce water availability to irrigators in the Goulburn Murray system, drive up the cost of water to irrigators, reduce food production and cost local jobs in our region,” Ms Lovell said.

“... Victoria’s irrigation communities are the ones paying the price.”