Farming

Farmers for Climate Action has welcomed the Victorian Government’s move to pay landholders $8,000 a year for each kilometre of high voltage power line on their land, for 25 years. Farmers for Climate Action, an organisation representing 7,500 farmers Australia-wide, had been calling for such a policy, and it was a key plank of its Victorian election campaign.

Reports are that these buybacks will not be used to progress the 450GL or 605GL recovery targets. However, it’s important this proposal doesn’t become a stalking horse to open up broader buybacks. We need open consultation and transparency in decision making and we’re looking to Minister Plibersek to lead that approach. We have recently written to water ministers seeking openness and transparency – both from the Ministerial Council and their advisory body the Basin Officials Committee: Malcolm Holm, NFF.

The Victorian Farmers Federation (VFF) says the Albanese Government’s plan to buyback water under the Murray-Darling Basin Plan ignores all evidence of the devastation farming communities will be forced to endure. VFF Water Council Chair Andrew Leahy said the announcement by Federal Water Minister Tanya Plibersek to buyback water continued to ignore the concerns of farmers about the reduction in the amount of water available to produce food.

A town Centre Rejuvenation Plan has been described as “fantastic” but should not ignore Naracoorte is a service centre with an economy underpinned by agriculture. Explaining his concerns, Cr Peter Ireland believed expenditure featured in the plan – a maximum of $9.7 million in the first three years – had a focus on tourism at the expense of Naracoorte being a service centre for agriculture.