INDEPENDENT Member for Shepparton District Suzanna Sheed and her Goulburn Murray Irrigation District (GMID) Leadership Group co-chair David McKenzie met with Federal Water Minister Tanya Plibersek this morning to discuss the future of Federal water buybacks.
Ms Sheed and Mr McKenzie told the minister that GMID communities felt they have made major sacrifices to a globally important reform and further buybacks would hurt the district’s already damaged water-reliant food production industries.
Ms Sheed said the minister did not rule out further buybacks or shifting the deadline for water to be delivered to the environment. “What we were buoyed by is that we were able to express that the data from the recent flooding events and the rainfall enjoyed by the environment should be considered,” Ms Sheed said.
“I was also pleased that she seemed to understand the socio-economic impact of buybacks and communities and said when accepting buybacks she would look favourably on projects that had the smallest impact on communities. “She spoke about projects that would use water more efficiently and use the money from the buybacks for job creation.
“I was also interested in Ms Plibersek’s reasoning for leaving a blank figure for “delivering on water commitments” in the recent Federal Budget. “Ms Plibersek explained that she did not want to distort the water market by including such a figure, but I am still concerned about what that final figure that may be.
“We raised the results of the latest Frontier Economics report that 450 Gl of water buybacks would lead to $513million in lost production per year and 900 jobs lost in our region.
“We also posed the question on whether this water could even be delivered to environment, ahead of the Victorian constraints study due next month.”
Mr McKenzie expressed to the minister the deep disappointment that our irrigation communities feel when the government uses rhetoric suggesting that so little water has been recovered.
Ms Plibersek acknowledged Mr McKenzie’s point that our region had given up the most water, engaged in some of the most innovative projects, and had been proud of what it delivered.
“As the independent member for Shepparton District, I am so pleased to have been able to open a direct line of communication with our federal water minister and feel confident that we will be able to have further fruitful discussions in the future,” Ms Sheed said.
“This is an example of what can be achieved when a community is represented by an independent – they can work with the government of the day”.
