His comments come in the wake of SunRice's decision to cut 100 jobs; 25 from its Deniliquin facility, 55 from Leeton and 20 from subsidiary Australian Grain Storage.

SunRice cited near-record low harvest resulting from a lack of water in the region and the Murray Darling Basin Plan as factors which led to the cuts.

Mr Brennan said the job losses would hurt a region already feeling the pain as families and farmers move away from the region as a result of a struggling agricultural industry and the flow-on affects through the community built by irrigators.

"There are some vacancies around but I don't know anywhere that could absorb all 20 workers," he said.

"They're probably going to look afar at their options and unfortunately if they move there's a high propensity they won't come back..."

Former Deniliquin rice farmer turned water advocate Shelley Scoullar knows firsthand the tough decisions families face when affected by drought and redundancies.

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She left her farm and moved into Albury-Wodonga after her husband lost his job in the last round of SunRice cuts.

"I absolutely loved growing rice," she said. "But under the current water policy I was concerned about the future of rice growing and had to make a really tough decision.

"It's really tough given I feel being a rice grower made me who I was, but I think we made the right decision for out family."

Mrs Scoullar said redundancies don't just affect workers, but schools, shops and the entire town.

"It's really sad, it's just a waste," she said. "Someone loses their job at the mill and most likely they have to leave town and take their partner and take the children out of school. It flows on to every person in the community."

Cr Brennan said SunRice have committed to milling in Deniliquin until 2021, but if conditions don't improve he suspects they would have to mothball the mill as they did in the millennium drought.

"That's the next scenario, it's put into maintenance mode with only six or so employees," he said.

Member for Farrer and Environment Minister Sussan Ley said she was deeply concerned for those affected.

She said the Minister for Water Resources was seeking an urgent review of the RMCG report released by SunRice "which highlights concerns over changes in state water allocations, trends in the under-utilisation of water and irrigator behaviour, as well as the Murray Darling Basin Plan."