News irrigation farmers in Farrer will benefit from grants to upgrade on-farm infrastructure is welcome – anything to improve regional lives is a win.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Minister for Agriculture and Water Resources Barnaby Joyce (Nationals) announced stage five of the Murray-Darling Basin Plan’s On-Farm Irrigation Efficiency Program with Liberal member for Farrer Sussan Ley on Monday.
They said about 200 irrigators across the Farrer electorate would share close to $151 million to upgrade and modernise their on-farm water infrastructure.
The fifth round of funding was expected to generate more than 60 gigalitres in water savings.
Mr Joyce said up to half the water savings generated were to be kept by the irrigators, while the rest of the savings would be returned to the Commonwealth.
He said the Liberal-National Coalition was focused on infrastructure investment to increase water savings, not a policy of “indiscriminate water buybacks” favoured by Labor.
Mr Joyce also described the program as a “win-win” because farmers were able to improve their productivity and there would be more water flowing through the Basin.
But it was important to not lose sight of the bigger picture.
Uncertainty surrounding water recovery targets in the Murray-Darling Basin Plan was hurting our region’s small businesses – farmers and shop owners alike.
The Basin Plan sets the cap (sustainable diversion limits) on water taken annually from the Basin for urban, industrial and agricultural use. But Basin communities have grave concerns about how their businesses will be impacted by the amount of water allocated to the environment – to improve the health of waterways, lakes, wetlands and floodplains, and protect habitats.
There was so much concern about the MDBP that ideological differences were put aside in Albury on Friday to make sure the plan would not short-change basin communities.
Victoria’s Labor Water Minister Lisa Neville and her NSW counterpart, Nationals’ Niall Blair, jointly backed a panel to review the sustainable diversion limit adjustment mechanism.
Meanwhile everyday Australians in Basin communities wait eagerly for the Basin Authority’s Plan amendment review, to be finalised by June-July.
