Last week’s round of Productivity Commission meetings on the impacts of the Murray-Darling Basin Plan had an overwhelming response.
The Deniliquin meeting had to have a second room opened to accommodate the 115 attendees representing their business, communities, school and sporting clubs.
It was reported the commissioners were surprised by the attendance, which gave them a stark lesson in the passion of local communities and the frustration at a failing Murray-Darling Basin Plan and governments which refuse to address its shortcomings.
The Speak Up Campaign, which had encouraged people to attend, was represented by chair Shelley Scoullar and other members.
“It was great to see the diversity of community members, who emphasised the human toll of the Basin Plan due to the failure of governments to keep promises of genuine consultation and delivering triple bottom line outcomes. We welcomed the hearing and thanked the commissioners. Unlike other recent Federal Government representatives, they did not sneak into town and meet with selected stakeholders in order to tick a consultation box. Instead, the commission heard about the true feelings and impacts to our communities,” Mrs Scoullar said.
Also at the hearing was Wakool River Association chair John Lolicato, who reiterated the public forum was welcomed as these had been “sadly lacking in recent years.”
“But the time for listening and not taking action must end,” Mr Lolicato said.
“Our communities continue to provide Basin Plan solutions, which governments ignore. Hundreds of reports and reviews have been undertaken, yet nothing changes. We need a literature review of all the previous recommendations, and I have called on the Productivity Commission to also report on the recommendations from its previous reviews, including which ones have been adopted or acted on.”
Mr Lolicato also spoke about the damage from water buybacks and highlighted to the commission it is not the individual farmer who sells water that suffers, but rather those left in the system and the communities which relied on the productivity being generated. He said environmental water holders already own 4,622.5 gigalitres of water entitlements and there must be an assessment of what can be used and delivered before further water is recovered.
“The social fabric of regional communities, particularly in the section of river which has the greatest complexity of delivering these volumes, is being broken. If the Federal Government does not want us to exist anymore, then it needs to come out and say so and stop treating us as second-class citizens,” Mr Lolicato said.
Mrs Scoullar said the commissioners were also told by a number of people that water quality in the region’s rivers and creek systems was in decline due to the Basin Plan’s sole focus on water volumes. It was pointed out the Basin Plan was supposed to be about setting a Sustainable Diversion Limit (SDL) for each region, and the NSW Murray region is using 17 per cent less than what is allowed under its SDL, but this was not being recognised.
“The Productivity Commission called for communities to put forward their solutions; it was made clear we have been doing just that for many years, but it falls on deaf political and bureaucratic ears,” Mrs Scoullar said.
Southern Riverina Irrigators CEO Sophie Baldwin said the large turnout at the meeting was an indication of just how bad the basin plan has impacted our region and just how concerned the community remains, especially as we face the threat of further buybacks under an Anthony Albanese led Labor government.
“The impacts of the basin plan have been far reaching and as a community, we have had enough. We don’t want to see another drop of water leave our region through buybacks or any other measure, enough is enough and this madness has to stop,” she said.
Ms Baldwin highlighted that in 2018, the commission stated the plan should update its modelling. They also stated that the recovery of 450GL upwater needed to be adaptive and subject to new information, while environmental outcomes using SIDLAM (605GL) were highly ambitious and nothing was done.
“This is why, as a community, we remain so frustrated. Our message hasn’t changed since the implementation of this crazy plan – every single megalitre of water that leaves the productive pool impacts our towns, our businesses, our services and our environment.”
Ms Baldwin said environmental water holders already own 4,622.5GL and we know the CEWH can only use 78 per cent of the water they already own and the Federal government is still chasing a potential 839GL through further buybacks.
“If this occurs, it will wipe out the entire MIL footprint, taking with it our Australian grown rice and a dairy industry that supplies 22 per cent of the country’s fresh milk.
“The basin plan is now nothing more than a political grab for water at the expense of food security for our nation – cost of living pressures will only increase in the future if we continue to strip water away from agriculture.”
Ms Baldwin said it was refreshing to see a government body in town.
“This is the first time in a long time we have had a government body in our town to listen to our concerns first hand. We commend the commission for making the time and we urge the Federal government to listen to the community.”
All in attendance agreed that it’s time for government to start implementing the recommendations instead of cherry picking the narratives that suit their own political ends and a particular desire to appease South Australians and city-based environmentalists.
This article appeared in The Koondrook and Barham Bridge Newspaper, 15 June 2023.
