Victorian Farmers’ Federation president Emma Germano told the hearing Victoria had pulled more than its fair share of weight in meeting the basin plan targets.
“While we all want a healthy environment, the legislated objectives in the Water Act requires water reforms to optimise economic, social and environmental outcomes,’’ Ms Germano said.
“The VFF believe the Commonwealth and the Murray-Darling Basin Authority have focussed on environmental outcomes to the detriment of our local economies and communities.
“These social and economic impacts of the basin plan continue to be ignored.
“And when (we) talk about ‘the environment’ there must be acknowledgement that the environment is not limited to the state of South Australia alone. The basin plan must be able to achieve all of its objectives to be effective and have the support of the nation.”
Ms Germano was supported by new water council chair, Andrew Leahy, from Murrabit, and VFF policy adviser Natalie Akers from Tallygaroopna.
Goulburn Valley Environment Group (GVEG) chair John Pettigrew told the committee the lower Goulburn River was being decimated by downstream irrigators and unseasonal flows.
“The damage is not from environmental flows, it's from inter-valley trading keeping them wet all summer with three times the volumes rushing through,” Mr Pettigrew said.
The former SPC director said water trading was the big issue in the Goulburn Valley, not the Murray-Darling Basin Plan.
GVEG vice-president Terry Court said the district was becoming unsustainable.
“Some of those little communities have been suffering since the end of the gold rush, they have to go,” Mr Court said.
“The Goulburn Murray Irrigation District is unsustainable . . . especially with climate change."
