Whether you are vegetarian, vegan or prefer ‘meat and three veg’, an almond latte or an extra dollop, and whether you shop at your local supermarket or high-end provider, your grocery shop relies on the produce from the Murray-Darling Basin.
But at a time when Australian households are already under financial pressure, the Federal Government is proposing legislation that will permanently lock in higher prices for supermarket staples like milk, orange juice, potatoes, apples, eggs, tomatoes and meat.
Basic economics tells us that reduced supply means higher prices for water in every season, which means higher prices for producers of supermarket staples, higher costs of production for Australian food processors and manufacturers, and higher prices for Australian consumers.
Younger Australians are already telling us they don’t believe they can afford a house; who wants to tell them they may not be able to afford Australian-grown produce?
Victoria has not signed onto the new deal for good reason.
The southern basin understood and accepted the challenge – and our communities have the scars to show for it.
We have recovered the volumes of water we promised; with a two-year extension (to allow for the pandemic’s disruption and delays to construction and project delivery), we could deliver 98 per cent of the targets, we have delivered two-thirds of the water recovered under the disputed 450 gigalitre efficiency measures target (the most of any state), and we met the 2019 target for all of our water resource plans.
Importantly, we are also seeing the success of these efforts in places like Hattah Lakes and Reed Bed Swamp.
So what’s the reward for our efforts?
The Federal Government wants to shift the goalposts and allow even more water to leave our region.
The estimated $6 billion of taxpayer funds required to fund the water buybacks is further salt in the wounds for Australian taxpayers and consumers – but it’s made worse by knowing water buybacks also fail our environmental sites and rivers because they simply cannot deliver the same suite of benefits.
The basin plan’s goal is much bigger than increasing flows through the Coorong – it’s about restoring the health of the entire Murray and Darling systems from top to bottom — sites in Queensland, Victoria and NSW are just as important as those in South Australia.
Accumulating environmental water in Dartmouth, Eildon and other Victorian water storages will do nothing for the environment if the water can’t be delivered where and when it is needed – and it can’t prevent a fish kill in Menindee Lakes or restore the flows of the Darling after it stopped for 400 days.
The Murray-Darling Basin plan is a massive undertaking that is trying to correct more than 100 years of water policy and practice.
Successive Victorian Governments, water managers, farmers, industry and communities have done the hard work in good faith – it is beyond disappointing to see the plan shift in this direction when the finish line is in sight.
• Linda Nieuwenhuizen is the Committee for Greater Shepparton chief executive
