Shepparton locals have expressed their frustration about plans to reintroduce water buybacks to the Murray-Darling Basin Plan.
Key points:
- A convoy of farmers takes to the streets to object to more water buybacks for the Murray-Darling Basin Plan
- But a water economist says there is no alternative if the plan’s legislated goals are to be met
- A consultant argues that buybacks have reached their limit and there are “smarter” solutions
Dozens of residents took part in a truck and tractor convoy through the northern Victorian city on Monday, protesting against the federal government’s plans to use buybacks to reach targets under the plan.
The convoy then parked at the Shepparton Preserving Company (SPC) factory, where local industry representatives addressed the crowd to speak out against proposed buybacks.
Earlier, the Labor government announced it had made a deal with the Greens to get their support for the Restoring Our Rivers Bill, which would extend the deadline for the Murray-Darling Basin Plan, which was set to expire next year.
The deal will allow for more water buybacks to take place in order to return more water to the environment.
Greater Shepparton City Council Mayor Shane Sali was worried about the “significant impacts” to the community within the bill.
“We know water buybacks do not work and we just do not believe that the government can meet their needs by taking water away from our region,” he said.
“We have got the most reliable water source.
“There is a big risk that it is going to come from our region and that will impact the great fresh food that we grow and obviously the cows that we milk.”
Farmers furious
Natalie Akers was one of the farmers at the protest on Monday. A dairy farmer at Tallygaroopna, just north of Shepparton, she said it was “critical” to be there to speak out against the buybacks.
“We need to send a message to the Commonwealth that water buybacks aren’t the answer,” she said.
“We really are in a battle for common sense here. We’ve got a government that wants to recover more water for the environment, but the water that they’ve currently got, they can’t actually deliver that now.”
Mitchell McNabb, Fruit Growers Victoria chairperson and a Goulburn Valley fruit farmer, said his motive to be at the protest was “more important than ever”.
“We already knew it was going to be a challenge to work against the government,” he said.
“From a fruit grower’s point of view, we have had some challenging years in the last couple of years and this is just another thing to add on to the pile of challenges that growers are facing.
“For us to then have less water security for us to go forward and have a sustainable business model is really challenging and it is going to make it even tougher for a lot of growers.”
The ‘only way to do it’
Professor Quentin Grafton, a water economist at Australian National University’s Crawford School of Public Policy, says there is simply no alternative.
“This is about bringing us back to the point we were where we decided collectively as a nation to actually deliver a sustainable level of extraction,” he said.
“We haven’t got there yet, but this is a step in the right direction and the only way to do it.
“We know that infrastructure can’t deliver on it. There have promises, promises and promises — it will not deliver.
“The only way we can deliver what we legislated to do is what is being proposed today [Monday] and what was in the water reform bill.”
There are ‘smarter solutions’
But Rob Rendell, a senior fellow with environmental and agricultural consultancy RMCG, said buybacks had “passed their use-by date”.
“I think it’s a sad day for the regions. It’s not necessarily a good day for the environment,” Mr Rendell said.
“It’s using the sledgehammer to crack a nut when, in fact, there are much better, smarter solutions, I believe.”
Mr Rendell said water buybacks had previously been an “effective” way of getting water, but were “only part of the equation”.
“We have reached the limit of buybacks, in my view,” he said.
He said efficiency solutions would be a more effective solution.