That is one of the messages that will be impressed on the politicians who come to Deniliquin on Tuesday with the NSW Government’s water buybacks inquiry.
Murray Irrigation is one of nine organisations invited to provide evidence on the first day of the inquiry in Deniliquin.
Also speaking to their inquiry submissions will be SunRice Group, Southern Riverina Irrigators, Western Murray Land Improvement Group, Yanco Creek and Tributaries Advisory Council.
While they did not make any formal submissions to the inquiry, the panel will also hear from Edward River Council, Deniliquin Business Chamber, Sefton & Associates Pty Ltd founder Robbie Sefton, and the NSW South-West Water Users Association.
Another round of hearings will be held in Griffth on Wednesday, at which Murray River Council, the Riverina and Murray Joint Organisations of Councils and the Murray Darling Association will be among those providing evidence.
The inquiry is being overseen by the Committee on Investment, Industry and Regional Development inquiry.
It will look at the impacts of Federal Government imposed water reforms on regional NSW, particularly the Water Amendment (Restoring Our Rivers) Act 2023 which includes further water buybacks as a form of recovering water for the environment.
“Implementation of the Water Amendment (Restoring Our Rivers) Act 2023 should not be done in a way that further impacts communities in our footprint,” Murray Irrigation says in its submission.
“Based on our experience, we don’t believe it has to.
“Despite the reform journey we’ve been on, family-farms - heavily reliant on NSW general security (GS) licences - remain at the core of our business model.
“Agriculture continues to be one of the predominant economic drivers, and sources of employment, for all communities and towns where we operate.
“We remain committed to the long-term sustainability of our operations, as well as maintaining a high standard of service delivery for the customers and communities that depend upon us for their water needs.
“Achieving balance between asset continuity, environmental responsibility, and agricultural production is consistently at the core of our business model.
“We’re getting the balance right. Our results speak for themselves, and we continue to innovate. In our experience, valuable environmental outcomes can be achieved without the need to excessively strip more water away from productive use. In our view, this is how you mitigate impacts for the long term.”
SunRice has said it believes the impact of water management decisions on food, fibre and beverage manufacturing in the Basin has been largely overlooked despite its requests directly to the Federal Government.
It says this puts the entire industry at risk.
“The SunRice Group and our growers are committed to finding sustainable solutions to managing the distribution of water resources in the Basin.
“However, the current Legislation puts the future of the NSW rice industry at risk. We therefore encourage the NSW Government to urgently work with the Federal government to develop a modified approach to the Murray-Darling Basin Plan implementation that ensures the long-term viability of irrigation-based production, industries, workforces and communities.
“In particular, the SunRice Group would like to see that measures that better balance the needs of irrigation-dependent industries and communities are prioritised above water purchase in the Southern Basin.
“Furthermore, we argue that the total funding of $160 million allocated to NSW under the Sustainable Communities Program is grossly inadequate considering the annual economic contribution of the NSW rice industry alone is $400 million per annum, let alone the broader contribution from the NSW irrigation economy.”
Tuesday’s inquiry hearing is being hosted at the Deniliquin Town Hall from 10am on Tuesday.
Member for Murray Helen Dalton has urged community members to go along in support of the witnesses invited to speak, to demonstrate the importance of having the right policies in place.
The inquiry is being chaired by Independent Member for Barwon Roy Butler.
Announced in February this year, 101 submissions were received during the feedback period.
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