Victorian Farmers Federation, irrigators, slam water buyback plans

The VFF said the government's plans ignored all evidence pointing to the devastation farming communities would be forced to endure, VFF Water Council chair Andrew Leahy said.

"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," he said.

"They [the commonwealth] continues to ignore the evidence around buybacks and the impact this has on our communities".

Water Minister Tanya Plibersek has indicated the commonwealth will buy back a total of 49.2 gigalitres, across seven catchment areas, through open, competitive and transparent tenders.

They include the Condamine-Balonne catchments, Queensland, and the NSW Murray, Namoi, NSW Border Rivers, Barwon-Darling and Lachlan in NSW.

The water will be returned to the environment.

Ms Plibersek said the government was re-entering the market to buy back water, because on and off-farm water saving and offset measures had not been met.

The extra 49 gigalitres had been highlighted as necessary for the Bridging the Gap program, as it's been predicted the plan could fall by up to 315GL short of its water recovery target.

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Mr Lahey said the minister disagreed with the conclusions of the 2022 Victorian report that highlighted the economic catastrophe caused by water buybacks.

"That report showed up to $900 million in production would be lost in the Southern Basin under a water buyback scenario," Mr Leahy said.

"Countless other reports have shown the devastation caused by buybacks, but it seems the government wants to ignore these facts".

He said it seemed the minister had completely dismissed the evidence, without justification.

"It shows that she is not interested in evidence-based policy, she just wants to keep sweet on a political deal with South Australia," he said.

Mr Leahy said Ms Plibersek's views on fully delivering the Basin Plan as agreed to by the states were also out of step with the facts.

"The position of the Victorian Government in 2012 was very clear," he said.

"It did not, nor has it ever since, supported a 3,200GL Basin Plan.

"Buybacks are the cheap and nasty policy solution."

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GMW's Central Goulburn Water Services Committee chair Peter Hacon said it appeared the decision was based on desperation.

He said if the water came out of southern Queensland and northern NSW, it was not likely to have as much impact as removing it from the Murray.

"If they start buying it out of the Murray, irrigators will come over the river and buy Victorian water," he said.

Cohuna dairy farmer Doug Fehring said he was not 'over confident" in anything the politicians said.

"It's going to have ramifications for local communities if they do go into the Victorian Murray (Zone Seven, from the Barmah Choke to the SA border),' he said.

"We have floods going down the river and that's not being counted as environmental water, so they have more than they need now.

"I don't know what they are up to."

He said Victoria's position in opposing buybacks was "much appreciated."

'But when push comes to shove, behind closed doors, we just don't know what's going on there."

Both Mr Fehring and Mr Hacon said the Basin Plan was largely "political".

Upper Goulburn beef producer Jan Beer, a long time critic of the basin plan and said she wanted to know how the commonwealth believed water could be delivered, without flooding landowners "to the eyeballs".

River operators had already stated they would not be delivering flows of 80,000ML to the South Australian border.

"It is pretty obvious Ms Plibersek is not listening to state Water Ministers or people who live in the Basin.

She said the latest Communique from Water Ministers stated the commonwealth was also going ahead with its determination to deliver the additional 450GL in environmental upwater.

"Does this mean the commonwealth will also purchase remainder of 450GL?," Ms Beer said.

"It is obvious that the commonwealth intends to ignore or over-ride the socio-economic impact criteria.

"To ignore this criterion agreed to by the Basin States puts Victoria's agricultural economy and our nation's food security at enormous risk."

Murray River Group councils also expressed alarm about the plan, saying buy backs would further divide and hurt communities that were already suffering.

Chair Rob Amos said with people suffering financially and emotionally, there would always be sellers, if the price was high enough.

"And that is understandable but the cumulative impact on our region is negative," Cr Amos said.

He said the socio-economic test gave communities certainty and stopped the piecemeal "Swiss cheese" buying back of entitlements, which was so damaging to regional areas.

"The economy in northern Victoria has been devastated by floods, affected by COVID and by workforce issues - the last thing we need now is a buy-back program that will take more away from regional areas," Cr Amos said.