By RICK GLADIGAU, PRESIDENT, AUSTRALIAN DAIRY FARMERS
The gloves are off for many farmers right now when it comes to water issues, and it’s worth taking a moment to reflect on why some of our usual diplomacy is being set aside.
To put it simply, we’re feeling ignored and fed up.
You see, we’ve spent the past couple of years meeting with and providing submissions to the federal government about possible solutions to the Murray-Darling Basin Plan’s challenge of finding water for the environment.
The health of the Murray-Darling Basin is critical to those of us in the dairy industry, given one-fifth of the nation’s milk supply is produced in the basin. But it’s also an issue for anyone who farms in the Murray-Darling Basin.
Most of us know that environmental flows are necessary and care about a healthy river system. Our livelihoods and the wellbeing of regional communities depend upon it.
We also know from experience that water buybacks can have a devastating impact on the communities living in the Basin, most of whom have no water to sell, but will still pay the price. They cause an exodus of people, drive up water (and consequently food) prices and impact our ability to grow food to feed families across Australia and the world.
And, finally, what we know and what the Minister for the Environment Tanya Plibsersek knows (and even acknowledged last week) is that there are alternatives to buybacks. There are other smart and innovative ways to deliver the plan’s outcomes.
So, why does the proposed water Bill currently on the table from the Federal Government allow for unlimited water buybacks to return the planned 450 gigalitres of water to the environment?
The Bill extends the timeline for delivery of the MDB Plan to 2027, which we’ve welcomed. But by permitting buybacks as a way to achieve its environmental aims and watering down the socio-economic testing, it becomes the “bad bill” so many of us are angry about right now.
Speaking at Murray Bridge last week Minister Plibersek said while “water purchase is … not the first tool at hand … it has to be part of the mix”.
I disagree. I know it seems simple. Buy water, throw it down the river and the environment will flourish. Don’t let social and economic issues or the physical limitations of our current infrastructure get in your way.
But that’s not how the environment or our society operates.
Additional water, without other changes, does not necessarily mean the environmental outcomes we need will be achieved. Indeed, it’s possible that it will do more damage than good.
A whole raft of complementary measures is required to underpin environmental outcomes. Do you remember the Menindee fish deaths? The New South Wales Government Chief Scientist found that the key contributors were water quality and a lack of mobility for fish (i.e. they needed fish passage/ladder reform).
Push more water down the river and you’ll likely end up with infrastructure damage and possible flooding of local communities.
Driving the price of water up artificially with buybacks makes many farm businesses unviable and drives people off farms. This leads to increasing food prices, both because inputs now cost more and because there’s less availability.
Losing farms from a region has a huge flow-on impact on a region. Most of a dairy farmer’s milk cheque is spent in the region where they farm. Take the farm out of a region and you lose that farmer, the people they employ and the money they bring to the local economy.
The other aspect that this too-simple plan overlooks is that many farmers use their water to provide on-farm environmental outcomes, including wetlands and fenced-off revegetated areas. Take water away or make it prohibitively expensive and much of this work will end.
So, what’s the answer here? Amend the water Bill proposed by the federal government, which in its current form is bad for basin communities, bad for regional jobs and bad for people who eat food (i.e. all of us). Drop the use of buybacks and bring back the socio-economic test. Work with farmers and farming communities on innovative solutions that deliver environmental benefits, while also allowing us to produce quality food in the quantity and at the price Australian consumers require.
It might not be the ‘simple’ solution.
But you know what? It might actually work.