Media Releases

02 Oct 2009 BUYBACK CONFUSION AND UNCERTAINTY IN THE QLD MURRAY DARLING

Queensland Farmers’ Federation (QFF) CEO Dan Galligan has this week called for clarity for Queensland’s Murray Darling Basin irrigators upon hearing the reasons that the Commonwealth was not interested in the purchase of Cubbie Station on the Balonne system in South Western Queensland.

Mr Galligan questioned what this will mean for future buyback decisions in this region.

“Farmers in the region have been asking questions about what the Government wishes to achieve given that there has only been 425 megalitres of water purchased in the Queensland Murray Darling catchments and all of that is from the Border Rivers,” Mr Galligan said. Total purchases across the Basin are more than 520,000 megalitres.

“Conjecture about the reasons for the lack of Government interest in purchasing Cubbie adds to this confusion,” he said. Mr Galligan went on to explain that Federal Minister for Climate Change and Water, Penny Wong has said that the Cubbie purchase did not meet the criteria in delivering the best value for money and that the Commonwealth was uncertain over the status of the licences involved under water plans in Queensland.

“The reasons behind this decision will add even more confusion to irrigators who for some time have been concerned about the lack of progress with the Commonwealth buyback program.

“Irrigators in the basin are keen to be involved in the buyback programs and other programs to recover water for the environment, so that their catchments can achieve sustainable levels of water take under the draft basin plan due to be released in 2010,” he said.

“Yet, there is very limited market information to help irrigators to determine a value for their licences to inform their expressions of interest to sell entitlements to the Commonwealth.

“Irrigators that depend on access to river flows are particularly concerned about their ability to achieve a market based return for the investments they have made on farm to store and use their water supplies.

In addition to these issues facing the individual irrigator, Mr Galligan said there are broad and legitimate concerns from the community about the impact on regional economies when water is bought for environmental purposes.

“This debate leaves irrigators in the Queensland catchments of the Murray Darling very uncertain about their future, and it would appear reasonable for them to be highly speculative about participating in future buyback programs without clarity around these issues.

“While the Commonwealth appears to have come to some agreement with New South Wales and Victoria around their future intentions on purchasing water, irrigators in Queensland and the communities that rely on irrigation remain completely in the dark,” Mr Galligan concluded.

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