Hugh Schuitemaker, Murray Pioneer
An initiative to acquire water entitlements for indigenous communities – in order to “rectify historical and systemic inequities” – overlooks the financial struggles of Riverland grape growers, according to the region’s federal MP.
The Federal Government has this week confirmed $100m in funding will be used to purchase water entitlements for indigenous communities in the Murray-Darling Basin, through the Aboriginal Entitlements Program.
Barker MP Tony Pasin said similar levels of support should be provided to Riverland wine grape growers facing economic difficulty.
“I struggle to reconcile the Albanese Labor Government’s decision to spend $100 million to purchase water entitlements for the economic benefit of indigenous communities, whilst at the same time our inland wine grape growing communities, who are desperate for support, get nothing,” Mr Pasin said.
“The current crisis being felt so sharply by winegrape-growing sector in the Basin right now has been bearing down on Riverland communities like a freight train and the Albanese Labor Government has done nothing about it.
“This Government has been distracted, initially by a failed referendum that cost Australian taxpayers close to $500 million, and more recently their anti-agriculture ideological agenda.
“In the meantime, inflation is not being controlled, the cost of living continues to rise, and primary producers, from sheep farmers to irrigators, are being hung out to dry.
“If Labor can throw $100 million at Aboriginal communities to buy water entitlements and create new bureaucracies to administer them, why can’t they support our inland wine grape growers to stay in business?”
It is understood entitlements purchased through the initiative can be offered for lease in the temporary water market. The program is part of the Water Amendment (Restoring Our Rivers) Bill 2023, which passed the Parliament earlier this year.
A spokesperson for the Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water said the support was necessary to repair previous issues surrounding water ownership.
“The Aboriginal Water Entitlements Program allocates $100m in the Murray-Darling Basin to purchase water, aiming to support the social, economic, cultural, spiritual, and environmental needs of Basin First Nations peoples,” the spokesperson said.
“This program is part of broader efforts to rectify historical and systemic inequities, particularly in land and water rights.
“Currently, First Nations peoples hold only 0.17 per cent of the surface water in the Basin, despite comprising 5.3 per cent of the population.”
This article appeared in the Murray Pioneer, 21 August 2024.
