Manufacturers rail against Murray Darling water buybacks

Australia’s largest food manufacturers are urging the upper house to block the Albanese government’s proposed Murray Darling Basin overhaul amid concern the changes will be crippling for businesses in the region.

Australia’s largest food manufacturers are urging the upper house to block the Albanese government’s proposed Murray Darling Basin overhaul amid concern the changes will be crippling for businesses in the region.

Some of Australia’s largest food manufacturers are urging the upper house to block the Albanese government’s proposed Murray Darling Basin overhaul amid concern the changes will lead to job losses and business closures.

Major organisations including SPC and Kagome have signed an open letter demanding Senators vote against the bill warning the push to restart controversial water buybacks will place “significant pressure on our supply chains, operations and workforces”.

The manufacturing bosses said the impact of the bill was “not well understood by the government and has not been adequately considered in the drafting of the bill”.

“The current bill increases the likelihood of buybacks being used for water recovery under the Murray Darling Basin Plan and removes protections to manage the impact of water recovery on communities, industries, jobs and businesses such as ours,” they said.

The warnings come after Labor struck a deal with the Greens to support the government’s attempt to amend the Murray Darling Basin plan.

Labor is seeking to extend the time frame of the basin plan and restart controversial water buybacks in a bid to deliver on 450 gigalitres of environmental water it promised before the last election.

The deal includes beefed-up transparency measures, $100m to help First Nations people participate in the water market and a legislated deadline to return environmental water by December 31 2027.

The amendments will also give the commonwealth the power to withdraw state government infrastructure projects that are “deemed unviable”.

SPC Global chairman Hussein Rifai told The Australian water buybacks would be a “very strong contributing factor” to the destruction of the domestic food manufacturing sector, warning of likely job losses and business closures as a result of the legislation.

“We are already struggling with cheap imports and if you bring the price of agricultural products up, we are going to have to buy it for more expensive, and it will allow the cheaper imports to compete with us only leading to loss of jobs and for some businesses to close entirely,” he said.

The deal revealed on Monday has been slammed by the National Farmers Federation and the federal opposition who warn buybacks will leave regional communities worse off.

Nationals deputy leader Perin Davey demanded Labor reveal how much taxpayers will have to fork out to deliver on the environmental water, accusing the government of having no idea how much it will actually cost.

“This is a total betrayal of regional communities by a government that promised no one would be left behind,” Senator Davey said.

The attacks comes after the Parliamentary Budget Office told Senator Davey it was unable to cost the water recovery process after it came to the view that there was “no existing analytical models that the PBO would be able to rely on to cost this proposal”.

“After careful consideration, we have reached the conclusion that the PBO does not have sufficient expertise in the market for water entitlements to reliably estimate the financial impact of this proposal,” it said.

Ms Plibersek would not reveal how much funding will be required to deliver on the environmental water, reiterating it was restricted by market sensitivities.

NFF president David Jochinke accused Labor of ignoring regional communities in favour of “cheap politics”.

“Their lip service about what’s best for communities is completely disingenuous. They’re only interested in the politics and whatever sleazy backroom deal can keep hold of inner-city marginal seats at the expense of jobs and livelihoods in the Basin,” he said.

The deal with the Greens means the government is a step closer to passing the bill and will require critical cross bench support from two more Senators.

The Australian understands the government is in active negotiations with a number of Senators including ACT Senator David Pocock, independent Senator David Van and Tasmania’s Jacqui Lambie Network.

The government is hopeful the bill will pass before the end of the year.