Question details
Water policy
(982) My adjournment matter is for the Minister for Water, and the action I seek is for the minister to make public her plan to prevent the federal government from removing any more water from Victoria via water buybacks and indicate whether that plan includes limiting or stopping the constraints relaxation policy.
Northern Victoria is the food bowl of Australia, generating over $3 billion worth of farm gate produce every year and employing 35,000 people. The Goulburn–Murray irrigation district produces 75 per cent of Australia’s pears, 50 per cent of Australia’s stone fruit and 21 per cent of Australia’s milk. In Northern Victoria our food, fibre and dairy industries rely heavily on irrigation water from the Murray and Goulburn rivers. The state government in Victoria has said it opposes the Commonwealth purchasing water entitlements, but its latest draft water plan makes clear that its plan is to facilitate Commonwealth water buybacks by actively identifying irrigation areas with a view to closing them down. Labor’s water prospectus Planning our Basin Future Together makes several positive references to the fact that they completely closed down the Campaspe irrigation district, and my constituents are worried that Labor have planned the same thing in the Goulburn–Murray irrigation district. The government’s Engage website identifies water recovery opportunities in the Goulburn–Murray and talks about the rationalisation of irrigation infrastructure that enables local transition. These words sound fancy, but make no mistake – transition is code for closing down irrigation channels, closing down farms and threatening the future of horticulture in the area.
Water deliveries to the Goulburn–Murray irrigation district have already dropped from a high of 2100 gigalitres in 2001–02 to 730 gigalitres in 2023–24. The chair of Goulburn–Murray Water warned in 2016 that if water deliveries dropped below 700 gigalitres that would be a tipping point for the viability for our irrigation communities. It is troubling then that the Victorian government’s water prospectus envisions in one of its future projections that a further 108 gigalitres will be taken for environmental use, which would affect 25 per cent of the irrigation district and over 35,000 farmers. Removing this amount of water from the consumptive pool would take the water volume below the predicted tipping point that the government has been warned about. Taking that much water could end irrigation in the area and devastate farming communities, and this minister seems to have no plan for stopping that from happening. Due to natural and built constraints there are limits to how much water can be delivered to the environment without inundating private property. There is no point in buying back water for the environment if that water cannot actually be delivered. This government, however, has a constraints relaxation policy that will remove constraints and lead to flooding properties adjacent to the river.
I thank the Member for Northern Victoria for her question and ongoing engagement with the Murray-Darling Basin Plan.
This Victorian Government is, and always has been, a strong advocate for our northern communities.
Water buybacks and the Victorian Prospectus
The recent Commonwealth Government announcement that it will seek to buy up to 70 GL of water in open tender buybacks across the southern connected Murray-Darling Basin was a profoundly disappointing and frustrating development in the Commonwealth’s approach to the return of environmental water to the Basin. Particularly given its oft-repeated pledge to work alongside communities in balancing environmental, economic, and agricultural considerations.
It has given rise to enormous uncertainty and fear for the sustainability, future and productivity of our Victorian Basin communities and some of the most important producers of the dairy, fruit and vegetables that we all too often take for granted.
The Victorian Government’s Prospectus outlines a pathway to achieve better environmental outcomes and climate change adaptation under the Murray-Darling Basin Plan in ways that minimise socio-economic impacts. This Prospectus was designed with, for and by the Victorian communities that deserve to be at the centre of all decisions about their futures.
The area by area approach it sets out was developed over many months of careful and direct engagement with communities. It was guided by countless conversations, community meetings and collaboration, and proposes a framework of negotiation, consultation and partnership.
It has identified a path to the return of environmental water that would reduce the socio-economic damage caused by the blunt instrument of open tender buybacks.
Your assertion that the Victorian Government is using this Prospectus to facilitate water buybacks is wrong. The Commonwealth Government changed the Basin Plan in 2023, giving itself more powers to purchase water, and removing the strong socio-economic protections for communities that were previously agreed to by all Basin states and the Commonwealth Government.
Proposing strategic alternatives including new infrastructure projects, improved river regulations, other rule-based options and reconfiguring irrigation districts, is the best way to avoid the negative impacts of buybacks, get the best outcomes for our communities, and deliver long-term environmental benefits to Victorian rivers and floodplains.
The Victorian Government will continue to advocate for this approach and for the Commonwealth to work with our communities rather than around them, and respect the grief, anger, and uncertainty that is currently and increasingly being felt.
I raised this and other concerns in the recent Water Ministers Ministerial Council and will keep advocating for Victorian communities to get the support they deserve as the Commonwealth implements its legislative changes.
I look forward to an ongoing partnership with the Commonwealth to achieve negotiated outcomes for our communities here in Victoria that are fair, evidence-based and transparent.
Constraints
Given its recent announcement, the Commonwealth Government has made it clear that it will proceed with water purchases regardless of whether constraints measures are implemented.
The Victorian Government has recently published an independent Consultative Committee's Constraints Measures Program Feasibility Study, technical report and accompanying technical papers to support the community’s understanding of what the constraints projects might mean for them. Based on the study's results and independent Consultative Committee feedback, it makes sense to continue to investigate the merits of the project.
A key finding of this technical work is that constraints alone will not deliver the benefits required for Victoria’s rivers and riverine environments.
Without the Victorian Murray Floodplain Restoration Project, thousands of hectares of precious floodplains will be left without the water they need to survive and adapt to climate change. The Victorian Murray Floodplain Restoration Project will deliver water higher up onto the floodplains, using vastly smaller amounts of water than a flood event to safeguard their recovery, health and resilience.
The Feasibility Study is a key input to broader investigations of constraints relaxation across the Southern Connected Basin and will help the Murray-Darling Basin Authority prepare a Constraints Implementation Roadmap by December 2024, which will define an appropriate way forward for considering constraints measures across all Basin states.
All Basin Plan states are required to agree on activities and scope across all jurisdictions before proceeding further. The Victorian Government will continue to participate in this process, ensuring issues raised in our feasibility study are considered as part of all joint strategies.
Specifically, the Victorian Government will advocate that the Constraints Implementation Roadmap must clearly outline:
- Long and short term benefits to both communities and the environment;
- How risks of inundation will be managed; and
- A clear process for meaningful ongoing engagement with communities.
The Victorian Government will not be rushed into such a complex project without broad community support. It's important to note we will not flood private land without the landholder's consent. To be clear, we will not use compulsory powers to acquire land or easements, either.
We will continue to engage with landholders to better understand the program’s benefits and impacts to the community if the program proceeds beyond the Roadmap.
In the meantime, work will continue to get much needed water back onto high-value floodplains along the Murray River, including through the Victorian Murray Floodplain Restoration Project.
Hon Harriet Shing MP
Minister for Water