Member for Mallee Dr Anne Webster MP has lamented Labor’s planned shutdown of parts of the Mallee economy with the open tendering of water buybacks opening today.

“The Albanese Labor Government plans to reduce our economy despite the successful move by northern Victorian councils at the recent Australian Local Government Association conference in Canberra to reject open market buybacks and urge a rethink on compensation,” Dr Webster said.

“Instead, the day after ALGA passed that motion, Labor showed contempt for local communities by announcing an open tender water purchase for 70 gigalitres in the southern connected basin of the Murray-Darling Basin.  The very same day, Australian Competition and Consumer Commission confirmed that buybacks have an upward impact on the cost of water in the Basin.

“Worse still, Minister Plibersek claims she has considered the social and economic impacts of the buyback program despite the Government having no idea where it will be buying water from. Labor’s carefree spin is the consequence of the Albanese Government ripping up bipartisanship on the Basin Plan, teaming up with their fellow inner-city ideologues, the Greens, to remove the socio-economic impact test. That test had been a bipartisan measure introduced when Labor was in government, to shield communities from adverse impacts.  Now, the safety barrier has been removed and economic and social damage can wreak carnage through Basin communities.

“Farmers have been selling water for a long time, but the insidious aspect that water buybacks bring is that water leaves irrigation communities and is stockpiled by the Commonwealth Environmental Water Holder, who have been regularly carrying over substantial volumes of water because they have more than they need.  Buybacks reduce the number of irrigators in a district, culling economic activity and leaving the remaining farmers with even higher costs to maintain irrigation district infrastructure.

“Farmers in the wine industry are not the ‘willing sellers’ Labor Water Ministers have courted. They are desperate sellers, looking to keep financially afloat due to the oversupply of wine grapes and other market issues.

Gannawarra Shire Mayor Ross Stanton said the last time the Commonwealth did open-tender water buybacks in their region, the region lost around 1600 jobs, hundreds of millions of dollars in production, and the price of water for agriculture went up $72 per megalitre.

A Victorian Government report from September 2022 suggested that if 372.3GL of water was bought back from the southern basin, it could risk 8700 hectares of plantings and could lead to a $400 million decrease in the value of local farm production.

“Labor’s $300 million compensation package for what ABARES estimates is $111 million in lost productivity every year is a pittance compared to the planned economic destruction Labor is unleashing from today on Mallee communities,”  Dr Webster said.

“A Dutton-Littleproud Coalition Government will put restore the correct balance between the environment, regional communities and farmers in the Murray-Darling Basin Plan.”