'Sham consultation process': Calls to explore alternatives to water buybacks

Farrer MP Sussan Ley joined NSW senator Dave Sharma and Malcolm Holm, chair of the National Farmers Federation water committee, at Albury's riverside precinct on Wednesday, March 6, to discuss the impact of water buybacks.

"The Labor government has finished its sham consultation process," Ms Ley said.

"I say sham because they never intended to take it seriously or they would have actually listened in the first place before they ripped up the Murray Darling Basin Plan and created havoc in the communities I represent."

The amendments to the Basin Plan passed the senate in late November, 2023.

The original proposal aimed to return 450 gigalitres of additional water to the environment by June 2024, but the new laws push back the deadline to December 2027.

The legislation also returned voluntary water buybacks as a key tool to deliver the plan.

Buybacks come only from willing sellers. No farmers are forced to sell water to the government but Mr Holm said the government shouldn't be so focused on buybacks when there are other options to future-proof the environment.

"Whilst the (environment) minister talks about a whole suite of options, when we sit down and talk to the department, (it's), 'no, they're not really on the table'," he said.

"There are still a raft of weirs that don't have fish ladders. This river is full of carp. What is the government doing about some of these other issues to allow better connectivity of the river system?"

Mr Holm also said he was concerned about a lack of transparency in the water purchasing licenses.

"What the government has done is quite deceptive in that they've released the amount of money, and they've released the people who bought it," he said.

"But it doesn't actually give us what we really need to know. The government hasn't told us where (the water has) come from.

"Anyone can own a water entitlement right across the nation. So they haven't even been forthcoming in telling us where those entitlements are."

Mr Sharma said the Basin Plan should be focused on environmental outcomes, not water buybacks.

"(An ideal outcome) seeks to improve the environment but doesn't just look at the volume of water that's being brought back," he said.

"But then also, importantly, (we need to) make sure rural communities and agricultural communities have certainty to support their own livelihoods and to support the jobs in their community.

"You need to be balancing both."