Irrigation stakeholders will be closely watching water market trends as the first of three Commonwealth water buyback tenders planned in 2024-25 gets underway.
Opening on Monday, NSW Irrigators’ Council CEO Claire Miller said it makes a mockery of Water Minister Tanya Plibersek’s promises buybacks would be staged to avoid market and community disruption.
She said the government was instead cramming three tenders in the southern Murray-Darling Basin into a single year in a “smash and grab raid designed to cause maximum market disruption and community damage”.
The first ‘targeted’ tender starting this week is seeking up to 70 gigalitres.
The second will seek sales of large portfolios of more than 20GL each and is expected to begin in the first quarter of 2025.
The third, open to everyone, will get underway in the second quarter of 2025.
“We know buybacks are already inflating the water market,” Ms Miller said.
“The New South Wales Water Register shows the government is paying more than 30 per cent above the market for New South Wales Murray entitlements under its Bridging the Gap tender from last year.
“In the Namoi valley, it is paying almost double the market rate for supplementary water licences.
“God knows where the price will be in a year’s time after the government crams in not only these three tenders towards the 450GL, but also enters the market separately for its $100 million Aboriginal Water Entitlements Program.
“For the last few years, only around 60GL of entitlements have been traded commercially in the southern basin, so these buybacks mean the government will totally capture the water market.”
Ms Miller claims Ms Plibersek misled Parliament in September last year when she said buybacks were not the only tool in the toolbox, and no community would be left behind.
“The minister has declared the social and economic impacts have been considered before approving these buybacks. Considered maybe, but clearly ignored when ABARES says past and planned water recovery wipes $602 million to $914 million every year from what the farm gate value of irrigated agriculture would otherwise be.
“We know water buybacks hurt regional communities because it has quite literally played out before our eyes.
“Any form of water recovery must be done in a way that does not have negative social or economic impacts on regional communities.
“We know there are ways to deliver environmental outcomes that do not require water buybacks, but the government refuses to act. Buybacks are an expensive, lazy and unnecessary form of water recovery while European carp infest our water ways, erosion and cold water pollution take their toll and plans for fishways and water- saving infrastructure upgrades collect dust on politicians’ desks.”
Shadow Minister for Water and Emergency Management and Federal Senator Perin Davey said she is concerned that the tenders have been opened without clear identification of the water sources or the intended use.
“The lack of transparency in where this water will come from and how it will impact specific communities is alarming, as is the fact the government will also not tell the Australian taxpayers how much of their money will be spent on this reckless water recovery,” she said.
“The tender information explicitly states there is no fixed volume to be recovered from each state, catchment, or water right type.
“Yet, Minister Plibersek claims to have considered the social and economic impacts of the tender – a claim that is dubious when the affected communities haven’t been clearly identified.
“Regional councils and residents have legitimate concerns about the repercussions of these buybacks. They worry about the impact on local business, jobs, and the overall health of their communities.
“The future of our regional communities and the sustainability of our agriculture sector depends on balanced and thoughtful water management policies.”