That is how an article published in this newspaper in 2024 started, when then SunRice chairman Laurie Arthur warned government inaction on balancing water policy impacts was already increasing the government’s reliance on overseas product processing.
Some of his warnings of reduced water availability in the Murray-Darling Basin are now beginning to materialise, with the company last week forced to reduce shift hours at its Deniliquin and Leeton rice mills as continuing dry conditions and ongoing water policy pressures impact rice production.
Under the changes, the Deniliquin mill will move from a 24-hour, five-day operation to a single eight-hour shift, five days a week.
At Leeton, both milling and packing operations will transition from a 24-hour, five-day structure to 16 hours a day, five days a week.
While concerns have been raised about potential job losses, SunRice has emphasised that no final decisions have been made regarding workforce impacts and that a formal consultation process is now underway with employees.
The move has renewed concerns about the long-term future of rice processing in regional NSW, with industry leaders warning that the Deniliquin mill remains at risk if rice-growing volumes continue to decline.
In 2024, Mr Arthur said work reductions at the mill, and potential future closure, could be avoided if the Federal Government reconsidered its stance on removing more water from the productive pool.
“What we want to do is keep our mills open,” Mr Arthur said at the time.
“We’ve had to go into care and maintenance twice over the last 15 years, and removing water resources out of this region is a big mistake.
“We’re worked hard to increase efficiency at our mills, and we intend to invest more in the Deniliquin mill, but that becomes hard when the government is intent on pulling 450 gigalitres of water out of this region.
“The Deniliquin mill has some great staff, and we need to let all the pollies know they can’t just pull the water out from under us.
“Water out of the system is likely to push us offshore.”
The sentiments shared by Mr Arthur two years ago have been reiterated by SunRice on numerous occasions before and since - at inquiries and in submissions - including in the 2026 Murray-Darling Basin Plan Review submission last month.
“During the 14 years of the Basin Plan’s life, and after almost 2100 gigalitres of water recovery, industries and communities have been a secondary consideration,” the company’s submission said.
“As a result, industries and communities are in a constant state of adaptation and reaction, as they seek to deal with the increasing uncertainty from the way in which the Basin Plan has been implemented.
“That uncertainty has been most recently heightened by recent water recovery action under the Water Amendment (Restoring Our Rivers) Act 2023.
“The Australian rice industry is the most adversely affected by water recovery.
“Rice is an annual crop heavily reliant on temporary and general‑security water. Although rice production is adaptable to weather patterns and climate scenarios, it has never recovered to pre-Millennium Drought volumes.
“SunRice’s operations provide a practical case study of how Basin‑wide water policy settings have translated into adverse downstream economic, employment and manufacturing outcomes.
“The permanent closure of the SunRice Group’s Coleambally rice mill, the reconfiguration of the Deniliquin mill during the Tinderbox drought in 2019 and an ongoing review of SunRice’s domestic rice processing operations serve as evidence for this.”
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