Following on from a previous visit to NSW Parliament House, a delegation turned up to Victoria Parliament House on Wednesday.
And they will continue their tour at Parliament House in Canberra on Monday.
Food security, processing and employment were all on the agenda when the group of concerned stakeholders from the Riverina and northern Victoria met with MPs in Melbourne.
United in their concern over the implications of water recovery under the Murray-Darling Basin Plan, the group is calling out the Federal Government’s continued push to buyback water which is increasing competition, pushing up prices and “negatively impacting every single irrigation dependent stakeholder and their community”.
The meeting was hosted by Victorian Member for Murray Plains Peter Walsh and led by Southern Riverina Irrigators.
The delegation included Ricegrowers Association of Australia co-vice president Monica Morona, Central Murray Environmental Floodplain Group co-chair Geoff Kendell, the management team from Kagome, Australian Dairy Products Federation director of communication Kristin Favaloro, Victorian Farmers Federation’s water council chair Andrew Leahy and Murray Dairy farmer Glen Gordon.
SRI CEO Sophie Baldwin said all the MPs in the room were impressed with the presentations, which “painted a concerning picture, and the very real possibility we will be net importers of agricultural product by 2037 if we continue on this same trajectory”.
“Irrigation, industry and towns only use 28 per cent of the available water in the system, and the rest is used for the environment and to run the river,” Ms Baldwin said.
“The pendulum has swung too far to the left, and the implications are dire.
“If our farmers can’t grow the staple foods we eat every single day - like dairy, rice, cereal, meat, fruit and vegetables - because productive water is scarce and prices are too expensive, rural Australia will collapse. Jobs, processing and manufacturing will be lost, and prices on the supermarket shelves will continue to rise.”
Ms Morona said stakeholders are working across all levels of politics, across commodities, to make sure that the message is heard.
“The Basin Plan impacts will be felt from the farm gate through to the price of your shopping trolley each week,” she said.
“The Murray-Darling Basin Authority’s own work - in the Basin Plan Review Discussion Paper, Box 2.4, page 16 - shows that more water alone will not deliver environmental outcomes.
"Politicians in Canberra need to understand that it's past time to move from a water recovery plan to a Basin Management Plan.
"We had good engagement with the Victorian National and Liberal members this week, and we'll be taking a strong message to Federal politicians next week.“
Kagome’s representatives spoke of the uncertain future they face with their core tomato production business, which is expected to be around 120,000 tonnes this coming year despite capacity for 250,000 tonnes.
The company employs 153 full time staff and more than 300 seasonal staff, and contributes $122.5 million to the economy nationally. It also spends $104 million in the Riverina and Northern Victoria, $27 million of which is wages.
It’s a similar case for the 40 dairy processors in the region, who employ 2000 people across eight government areas and commissioned their own report into buybacks.
The report found a water recovery of 600 gigalitres would reduce milk production by 15 per cent and push water prices up a further 40 per cent.
This equates to a loss of 270 million litres of milk annually, and likely the closure of some processors.
Mr Gordon was invited to speak because he is “typical of many of our region’s farmers”.
“He has invested significant sums of money in his own business to embrace efficiency, and he now grows more tonne of fodder per megalitre of water than he ever has,” Ms Baldwin recounted.
“But he can only do so much before the increasing cost of water becomes untenable on his 850 cow dairy business, which employs eight full time staff and supports 27 local businesses.
“Agriculture in the southern basin is important, and we will continue to fight for our region.”
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