South Australia thorn in side of VFF over water requirements

The South Australian water sweeteners must stop, writes ANDREW LEAHY

Hard to swallow: Over 800 gigalitres of this water taken from upstream communities will evaporate in South Australian lakes.

As I sit here as the new chair of the Victorian Farmers Federation water council thinking about the water battles the VFF has fought over the last 30 years, two words come to mind: South Australia.

Supporters of the Basin Plan like to say that the delivery of environmental water to SA is based on the best available science.

The truth is that it is more about politics than science.

We have fallen victim to a political process where governments are reliant on the senate crossbench to get any legislation through parliament.

This has given SA an advantage due to a number of SA independents and Centre Alliance demanding concessions from the Government.

South Australia has benefited most from the $13bn allocated to the Basin Plan.

It certainly hasn’t been Victoria or NSW whose southern Basin irrigators have contributed 76 per cent of total Basin Plan water recovery.

The stripping of this water from production has seen water use in the Goulburn Murray Irrigation District plummet to less than half of what it used to be.

The focus of the Basin Plan has been to deliver 2750 gigalitres to SA to keep the Murray Mouth open.

Let’s not forget Tony Burke’s sweetener of 2012 to SA by allowing a further 450 gigalitres on top of the 2750GL.

And here is the rub for affected communities: over 800 gigalitres of this water taken from upstream communities will evaporate in SA Lakes.

Millions have been pumped into SA by the commonwealth, including $328m for the Adelaide desalination plant.

Commonwealth Water Minister, Keith Pitt himself has also offered some sweeteners.

A further $40m was allocated last year towards the Coorong and Lower Lakes.

Another $60m remains for on-farm projects despite a commonwealth commitment that on-farm projects would be ruled out in March.

But SA is the only state continuing to put forward on-farm projects because the other states agree it breaches past agreement.

The commonwealth is hell-bent on pursuing the plan and ignoring the costs and implementation problems.

We still have a plan that is supposed to be completed by 2024, but SA still expects its additional 450GL when we know it is impossible to deliver.

With another Ministerial Council meeting tomorrow, I ask ministers to take a deep breath, look beyond the politics and see the people in Basin communities that are hurting and acknowledge that serious change is required urgently to protect irrigated agriculture.

● Andrew Leahy is Victorian Farmers Federation water council chairman

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