Labor to reopen water wars over Murray-Darling Basin

Labor has flagged a parliamentary bid to eliminate a cap on irrigation water buybacks from the Murray-Darling Basin.

Opposition water spokesman Tony Burke said Labor would move in the Senate today to axe the 1500 gigalitre water buyback cap. Picture: AAP

Labor has moved to restart the ­nation’s water wars, flagging a parliamentary bid to eliminate a cap on irrigation water buybacks from the Murray-Darling Basin.

Opposition water spokesman Tony Burke said Labor would move in the Senate today to axe the 1500 gigalitre water buyback cap, infuriating farmers who say extra environmental water should be obtained through investments in water infrastructure.

After a series of major fish-kills in the Darling River this year, Mr Burke yesterday said Labor doubted whether a promised 605GL of environmental water would be obtained through infrastructure improvements, noting “any gap will have to be filled by buyback”.

“If you don’t remove the cap on buyback, what do you do if the (Murray-Darling Basin) Authority does end up recommending more water needs to be returned to the rivers?” Mr Burke told ABC radio.

“Because all you’ve got left then, if you can’t use buyback, is compulsory acquisition or some other method of getting the water otherwise, or in the worst instance putting the parliament in a situation where you’d be saying, well we’re now going to ignore the MDBA.”

Liberal frontbencher Anne Ruston, from South Australia’s Riverland, said Labor was taking the “lazy” option to obtain environmental water, while trashing bipartisanship on the Murray-Darling.

“Is he going to buy it out of Renmark? Is he going to buy it out of Berri? Is he going to buy it upstream?” Senator Ruston said.

“He needs to face up to these communities and tell them where he thinks this water’s coming from.

“I think it’s lazy — it’s certainly cheaper to buy water back than to use some of the inventive ways that we have put on the table to get water returned to the river system for environmental reasons.”

The National Irrigators Council said the proposed removal of the cap threatened thousands of rural jobs. “This seems to be a knee- jerk and unnecessary response to recent publicity,” council chief executive Steve Whan said. “Basin communities who have thousands of jobs reliant on irrigated agriculture strongly oppose buybacks because they have seen the on-the-ground evidence of the loss of jobs and population water buyback causes.”

The 1500GL cap was not included in the Murray-Darling Basin Plan, but is provided for in the Water Act, which Labor will seek to amend in the Senate.

The Coalition has so far bought back 1300GL of water from farmers but does not intend to reach the cap.

Millions of fish died in recent weeks in the Darling River amid low water levels and extreme heat.