UPDATE: Farmers upset over yet more irrigation water buybacks for controversial basin plan

This is the reaction of a key irrigation group, the NSW Irrigators Council, after the Commonwealth made its intentions clear before a meeting of water ministers from around the country tomorrow.

NSW Irrigators Council chief executive Claire Miller said Federal Water Minister Tanya Plibersek had previously promised all options for meeting the obligations of the Murray-Darling Basin plan were still on the table.

"But instead (the government) is only pressing ahead with the most damaging and divisive option of all," she said.

Ms Plibersek yesterday said the government would buy another 49 gigalitres of irrigation entitlement across the Murray Darling basin.

That water will be bought from "willing sellers" in Queensland and NSW.

The government says it will "strategically" buy the water through an open tender beginning on March 23.

The extra 49 gigalitres had been highlighted as necessary for the Bridging the Gap program, so the Commonwealth meets its target.

The basin plan is poised to fall up to 315 gigalitres in total short of its water recovery target.

The Murray-Darling Basin Authority assessed the progress of the state governments' water saving developments - known as SDLAM projects - and found they would only deliver between between 290 and 415 of the 605GL required by mid-2024, chief executive Andrew McConville has revealed.

It is believed this week's meeting will be asked to consider extending the 2024 deadline for all the basin plan's water buybacks.

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The Commonwealth's 49.2 gigalitres, comprised of 46 gigalitres of surface water and 3.2 gigalitres of groundwater, would be recovered across seven targeted catchments

Those catchments are Condamine-Balonne catchment in Queensland and in NSW they are the NSW Murray, Namoi, NSW Border Rivers, Barwon-Darling and Lachlan.

The Albanese government made an election commitment to complete the basin plan, but Ms Plibersek faces opposition from the states at tomorrow's meeting with water ministers.

NSW Irrigators Council's Ms Miller said the government has also indicated it is contemplating buybacks to recover the additional 450 gigalitres promised to South Australia.

"The focus on buybacks as the first resort option is alarming, given the socio-economic and water market impacts of past buybacks well-documented by ABARES and in other reviews," she said.

National Farmers' Federation water committee chair Malcolm Holm said farmers and communities had been blindsided by Ms Plibersek's announcement.

"We need open consultation and transparency in decision making and we're looking to Minister Plibersek to lead that approach," he said.

NSW Minister for Water Kevin Anderson said Labor has officially walked away from Basin communities by announcing it will re-introduce the water buybacks.

Mr Anderson said NSW has seen first-hand the negative impacts that Commonwealth water buyback programs have had on regional communities and is determined to avoid these impacts happening again.

"NSW continues to oppose non-strategic buybacks, which history has shown will bring regional communities to their knees," he said.

"Today the Federal Government has announced it will enter the market to strategically buy back 49GL of water under the Bridging the Gap target.

"Let's be clear, there is nothing strategic about an open market tender. The only strategy here seems to have been to blindside the states with this news just 48 hours before Friday's Ministerial Council meeting.

"The NSW position on Bridging the Gap was clear: that the 50GL of over recovered water in NSW should count towards targets in other NSW valleys. The Commonwealth clearly ignored this sensible request.

"NSW has been approaching discussions with the Federal Government in good faith in the lead-up to Friday's meeting based on a commitment that all options were on the table.

"It is deeply disappointing that the Commonwealth has ignored the progress and efforts made by NSW in delivering water recovery targets and our commitment to delivering the Basin Plan."

United Dairyfarmers of Victoria president Mark Billing last week said talk of water buybacks and attempts to secure the 450GL up-water target by the Commonwealth infuriated dairy farmers.

"They just want to get on with the job of milking their cows and feeding the nation," he said.

"With Northern Victorian milk filling gaps on supermarket shelves in Sydney and Brisbane, making sure that farmers have the water available to produce quality milk is truly in the national interest."

The Victorian Farmers Federation said the buyback plan "ignores all evidence of the devastation farming communities will be forced to endure".

VFF water council chair Andrew Leahy said the announcement continued to ignore the concerns of farmers about the reduction in the amount of water available to produce food.

"The Commonwealth's plan to buyback water will not only price farmers out of the water market, but it will also result in less jobs in regional communities and will increase the price of food for all Australians."

Mr Leahy said, whilst buybacks had only been announced for Queensland, NSW and the ACT, Victorian and South Australian farmers would still be impacted.

"We operate in a connected market and the 10GL earmarked to be bought out of the NSW Murray will result in less water being available to irrigators across the Southern Basin. We know it won't stop there with the government saying it will look to buyback water to recover the 450GL."

Ms Miller said another 450 gigalitres out of the irrigation pool was the equivalent of all the water left in the irrigation pool in the South Australian Riverland and the Victorian Sunraysia irrigation districts combined.

Or, it was almost as much as the water left in the Murrumbidgee Irrigation district, or the NSW Murray Irrigation system or the Goulburn Murray Irrigation District in northern Victoria.

"The minister needs to be upfront about which communities and towns she wants to shut down to deliver her basin plan," Ms Miller said.

"Communities are already living with the pressure of less water at higher prices, thanks to buybacks a decade ago. Further buybacks will push many off the edge in the next drought."