Federal Member for Farrer Sussan Ley (middle) with Southern Riverina farmers Malcolm Holm and Gabrielle Coupland at a water buybacks rally last year.
Federal Member for Farrer Sussan Ley has attacked the Albanese Government for greenlighting new water buybacks from the southern Murray-Darling Basin just weeks out from a federal election.
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Ms Ley said Labor’s “sneaky and secretive move” to rip a further 100 gigalites of water from farming “proves, yet again, this Labor government was completely unworthy of representing rural Australia”.
“Water buybacks is a lazy, uncaring method of taking enormous amounts of water for the environment,” Ms Ley said.
“If you want to divide farms, split communities, add to the nation’s debt level and stop growing Australian produce, then this is the way to go about it.
“And it’s only happening because Anthony Albanese collaborated with the Greens and crossbenchers in late 2023, legislating for the removal of more water from farmers over a shorter period of time.
“The Coalition is committed to stopping Labor’s ideological destruction of prime agricultural land; we simply cannot afford to hand back power to Anthony Albanese and a bunch of climate 200 independents.
“The environment minister must put a halt to this latest round of buybacks, and every single candidate at this election needs to be honest with their views on water policy, so voters in Farrer can have a say on their region’s future.”
