A forum highlighting the negative impacts of the basin plan on rural communities was held in Barham recently – hundreds were in attendance or have watched the forum online.
Southern Riverina Irrigators (SRI) joined the Central Murray Environmental Floodplain Group, The Bridge Newspaper and Upper Goulburn Catchment Alliance to organise the event which included a variety of speakers across industry, science and agriculture.
The forum will be used as a submission to the MDBA as part of the basin plan review process.
SRI CEO Sophie Baldwin said everyone in attendance called for an end to all basin plan reform which is destroying our rural communities and crippling productivity.
“Ultimately the basin plan is based on flawed modelling and some unachievable environmental outcomes- something the MDBA has finally acknowledged in the review they released in February.
“SRI are publicly calling for an end to all water recovery – no more buybacks, no SDLAM shortfall and no relaxing of constraints because these are all mechanisms used to deliver water downstream for unachievable environmental outcomes,” Sophie said.
“Basin plan reform is killing productivity, and we are at a critical point – there is still 221GL of water to strip from communities under the 450GL restoring our rivers legislation, and if they come for the 305-350GL SDLAM shortfall, they are basically wiping out the entire annual productive pool of MIL.
“Who will grow our staple foods and feed our nation if we no longer have our farmers growing rice, cereal, dairy, fodder, livestock and fruit and vegetables?
“It is an absolute disaster,” Sophie said.
The forum included an industry panel which included representatives from Ricegrowers Australia, Kagome and Australian Consolidated Milk (ACM).
The three representatives painted a bleak picture – consolidation, job losses and dire consequences for rural communities.
Jason Limbrick spoke on behalf of dairy processors. He said after commissioning a report into buybacks, water recovery of 302GL will reduce the consumptive pool by 8 per cent and push temporary prices up 20 per cent.
He said dairy farmers face losses of up to 40 per cent which will push people out of the industry and force some of the 40 dairy processing facilities employing 2000 people directly across eight local government areas to close.
He said this reform is not just an industry issue, it’s a food security issue, a regional development issue and a national economic issue.
Something we couldn’t agree with more.
“At the end of the day $11.4billion has been spent on the basin plan. There is now over 4622GL in government water accounts and there is no money left to update critical infrastructure.
“IPART has just released another round of potential fee increases of 10 per cent over the next three years plus CPI and there is just no end in sight.
“We need drastic action now to change this trajectory and there needs to be immediate flexibility with environmental water so it can be returned for use in the productive pool and keep our farmers farming.
“Our farmers will soon need to be recognised as critically endangered just like the lower Murray River,” Sophie said.
This article appeared in The Koondrook and Barham Bridge Newspaper, 9 April 2026.
