The need for farmers to have affordable and sustainable water for agricultural production is once again shaping up to be a major election must.
For Queensland to continue producing world class food, fibre and foliage it must properly plan and allocate water for agricultural production, particularly in a changing climate.
Current challenges include a lack of water for growth in some of the state’s most highly productive agricultural areas, planning decisions and electricity costs undermining the viability of some schemes, through to rising groundwater.
Queensland Farmers’ Federation (QFF) President Stuart Armitage outlined how critical the issue of water availability, accessibility and affordability were for the state’s farmers and the regional communities they support.
“Queensland farmers are amongst the most efficient and productive users of water in the world, and water is the lifeblood for more than 5,500 irrigated farm businesses.
“Water creates opportunity – for both farmers and for the businesses in the towns that service our sector.
“Agriculture is responsible for the management and use of 60% of the state’s water; however, the management, planning, regulation, modelling, quality, and critically, pricing of agricultural water is spread across five departments and ministerial portfolios.
“We need to get access, pricing, governance and administration of agricultural water right if we are to take advantage of the growing demand from domestic and international markets for high quality agricultural products”, Mr Armitage said.
This election, QFF is advocating for the following sensible and practical actions to realise our vision for a vibrant and thriving agricultural sector providing food, fibre and amenity to all Queenslanders:
- Commit to affordable bulk water prices for SunWater and SEQWater schemes and provision funding for QFF to contract specialists to ensure irrigated agriculture can meaningfully respond to the pending pricing investigations.
- Develop a regulatory mechanism to facilitate future access to reserves in existing Water Plans which have set strategic water for future planning projects.
- Facilitate temporary water trading.
- Commit to greater protection for irrigation infrastructure.
- Commit to machinery of government change to align agricultural water within the agriculture portfolio.
The full QFF Policy Platform and its Summary are available HERE: https://www.qff.org.au/queensland-election/.