The water is being sought from NSW and Queensland catchments, and the Federal Government said the voluntary purchases were only for the remaining 49 Gl of the Bridging the Gap target.
Bridging the Gap is the largest pool of water to be recovered under the Murray-Darling Basin Plan — a total of 2075 Gl. Around 49 Gl remains to be recovered.
Victoria has already met its Bridging the Gap target.
Other catchments to be targeted for water purchases in NSW are Namoi (9.5 Gl); NSW Border Rivers (5.1 Gl); Barwon-Darling (1.6 Gl); and Lachlan (0.9 Gl).
The remaining water will come from Queensland’s Condamine-Balonne catchment and the ACT.
The water will be bought through a tender that will begin on March 23.
Mixed reactions
While environment groups support the water purchases, farmer advocacy groups and rural MPs slammed the move.
NSW State Member for Murray Helen Dalton said the announcement put at risk a $24 billion southern basin irrigated industry.
“As farmers we need a sustainable and healthy environment to survive but we also need to have the means to grow food to feed our nation, and we cannot do that without a reliable irrigation allocation,” she said.
Mrs Dalton said the southern basin had already contributed 84 per cent of buybacks to date and that there was no more water left to give.
VFF Water Council chair Andrew Leahy said the upcoming buybacks would affect Victorian and South Australian farmers.
“We operate in a connected market and the 10 Gl earmarked to be bought out of the NSW Murray will result in less water being available to irrigators across the southern basin,” Mr Leahy said.
“Buybacks are the cheap and nasty policy solution. Farmers are committed to working with all levels of government to deliver real outcomes for the basin.”
Australian Dairy Farmers president Rick Gladigau also called for more farmer input.
“Dairy farms in the basin have already done the heavy lifting and paid the price with reduced milk production from the Murray dairy region and higher average water costs,” he said.
Mr Gladigau said irrigated dairy in the basin was a $1.67 billion industry that provided more than 8400 jobs in regional communities and that while recovered water for the environment had seen some gains there had been a “lack of focus on complementary environmental works”.
“The dairy industry would like to work with government to develop innovative projects and use the most up-to-date science to improve environmental outcomes, rather than steadfastly focusing on the blunt instrument of a volumetric target of water for the basin,” he said.
Environment groups, however, say buybacks are the only cost-effective, practical way to return water to rivers and the Federal Government must “stand up” to NSW and Victoria by purchasing water from “irrigators who wanted to sell”.
“Instead of purchasing water (NSW and Victoria have) proposed dodgy alternatives that don’t work ... (it’s) time for the Federal Government to call out this farce and for Victoria and NSW to step up and cooperate,” Environment Victoria’s Healthy Rivers campaigner Tyler Rotche said.
NSW Nature Conservation Council chief executive Jacqui Mumford said basin rivers would suffer if more water wasn’t recovered by the June 2024 deadline and that voters would “punish” the NSW Government at the upcoming election if it stood in the way of “a healthy and sustainable Murray-Darling Basin”.
To find out more about water purchasing in the basin, visit: https://www.dcceew.gov.au/water/policy/mdb/commonwealth-water-mdb/strategic-water-purchasing
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