Water buybacks will cripple the regions

Published on 03 July 2024

Enough is enough … things you all should know.

Crippling water buybacks will see many communities, currently with their back to the wall, disappear, and the shiny trinkets offered by the Federal Government as compensation are $300 million.

The Federal Government plans to buy back up to 450GL of water which, at our estimates, will cost them $8 billion. No surprises, there is an undisclosed amount in the Federal Budget to buy water and, for confidentially reasons, we cannot see it, but surprisingly the surplus of the Federal Budget is $9 billion, is this a coincidence?

Prime Minister Albanese and Minister for the Environment and Water, Tanya Plibersek MP, you plan to remove $8 billion of productive water out of the system, the $8 billion that creates an economic wellbeing for the bush. With no care for rural Australia, the Albanese Labor Government is saying goodbye to small business.

How will the baker, butcher, newsagent and general store survive without this money flowing into our rural towns, and the one place people in the bush people tend to gather to talk about their day, debrief their mental health problems is the local pub, and that will be no more. Thanks Mr Albanese.

A saying in the bush “we capitalise the good times and socialise the bad”, and in socialising the bad, that is when we come together and talk and find out that everyone is doing it tough, so the gun can stay in the gun cabinet for another week.

Two industries which felt the devastating impact of the last round of water buy backs were the rice and dairy industries. In Deniliquin alone, over 1000 jobs were lost in the rice industry. It still has not recovered, and any increase in water costs, no matter how small, will decimate these industries. Do you wish to be solely responsible for Australia having to import rice and dairy products? The loss of these economic drivers in our rural communities causes a domino effect, with reductions in essential services such as police, medical, and education. This, in turn, causes more people to leave those rural communities in search of essential services in larger towns. In the end there will be very few left, and those that are here are even more isolated than before, and that isolation then creates mental health concerns.

These are the realities, idiotic decisions of the Federal Government have real life impact on real people.

If you cared about the bush, Mr Prime Minister, you would ensure that every dollar you take out of the Gross Regional Product is replaced by another industry, to replace the Gross Regional Product lost. Not throw $300 million at names on the back of a football jersey, or plant trees in the main street of the towns. As both those things will be moot, we are struggling now to fill football sides, and with less people who will we even have to water the trees, assuming they will get water as they are the environment, while the real humans suffer.

Mr Albanese, you say you care about cost of living and inflation. Reports which you are very well aware of state that buying back this water will see water costs jump by 10% or more. Simply put, water will be more expensive, so the cost of production will be more expensive, therefore retail prices will be higher, which is inflation. Higher prices for food for instance leads to cost of living pressures, not to mention the 2 million plus on food handouts already. Simple economics - higher input costs equals higher prices. So why now are you pursuing a policy that will directly cause even more cost of living pressures and cause inflation to remain above the RBA target rate.

Incidentally, the advertising propaganda you are spruiking on television about over use of water is complete and utter rubbish. Our farmers wring out every drop of water, to ensure value for money, every farmer is a steward of the land and, in many cases, has been for generations. So how is it that Canberra knows better than the 7th generational farmer?

The irrigation areas were purpose built by Government. They were built to drought proof the country to ensure we could have food and fibre for all our needs and export for the good of the country.

It seems you do not care for Australia or Australians, if you did you would find another way to achieve the end result rather than putting rural Australia against the wall.

You are a Government that lacks awareness, vision and social equity - to all intents and purposes your Government is prepared to sacrifice the few to satisfy an unbalanced agenda ensuring you have the support of a necessary minority.

Enough is enough!

Councillor Ruth McRae OAM
MAYOR