PEEL Valley irrigators have branded the State government’s latest move to decrease water costs a “joke”, saying a trading trial announced by water minister Kevin Humphries would have little impact on skyrocketing water use charges.
The irrigators said they weren’t even able to take their case straight to the top last week, with Mr Humphries failing to attend a prearranged meeting in Sydney.
Peel Valley Water Users’ Association president Ildu Monticone, “Medica Park”, Dungowan, and local irrigator Laurie Pengelly, “Rosebank”, Tamworth, instead met with two staffers, who were unable to explain the benefit to Peel Valley irrigators, Mr Monticone said.
A spokesman for Mr Humphries said he was called to another commitment.
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) last month decided to increase Peel Valley water use charges by 10 per cent for each of the next three financial years, from the current $45.56 a megalitre to $55.13 a megalitre in 2016-17.
Mr Humphries and Tamworth MP Kevin Anderson announced the trading scheme, which would allow a maximum of 4.3 gigalitres to be temporarily traded from the Peel Valley to the Namoi Valley for the current financial year.
A fact sheet released by Mr Humphries said State Water would use the additional revenue from the trades to “maintain service delivery to the Peel Valley”, but local irrigators, who have zero water allocations, say the trial was a waste of time.
“Even if there was water to trade, the revenue that State Water gets makes up the difference between the price we pay and what they really want,” Mr Monticone said.
“The whole thing is nonsense. It will have no impact whatsoever on the excessive prices paid by irrigators in the Peel.”
Mr Monticone said changing the water sharing plan wasn’t the answer.
“There are problems with the water sharing plan, but they have nothing to do with water pricing.”
Mr Humphries responded to the claims in a statement, saying “at no point will State Water recover more than service delivery costs”.
He said representatives from the NSW Office of Water had met with Peel irrigators to explain how the proposal would work.
“Favouring a path of deliberate misinformation over understanding will only perpetuate the problem, and despite the rabid protestations of those that purport to represent the interests of water users, the trial will deliver a market solution that will see prices fall,” Mr Humphries said.
Mr Monticone said more time should be spent working on a “postage-stamp” price for water across the State, rather than “playing with figures in the plan”.
He said changes to the water sharing plan should focus on unfair extraction limits.
“The annual extraction limit for all irrigators in the Peel is 6100 megalitres but the total water licence entitlement is 31,000 megalitres.
“We can only use, at most, 20 per cent of our entitlement. We think that’s what needs to be fixed.”
Mr Humphries has ruled out supporting a “postage-stamp” water price.
“Notwithstanding NSW’s commitment to the National Water Initiative, there is no industry support for postage stamp pricing across NSW and, in numerous discussions with Peel users, I have never suggested I would advocate for it,” he said.