The case centred around over-bank flooding at the Barmah Choke between 2017 and 2019, with irrigators seeking up to $1.5 billion in damages, alleging the MDBA had failed to follow its own operating plan.
The plaintiffs claim that over 100 gigalitres of water were lost and that they received significantly lower water allocations.
While NSW Supreme Court Justice Tim Faulkner acknowledged that higher water entitlements would have made the irrigators’ businesses more profitable, he ruled the MDBA did not hold a duty of care to water licence holders.
In dismissing the claims, he found that the authority had a legal obligation to act in the public interest, rather than for private irrigators.
The plaintiffs have been ordered to pay the MDBA’s legal fees, and it remains unclear whether the matter will be appealed.
In response to the ruling, Mr Farley said the government was interfering with agricultural productivity without consequence.
“What hope is there for Australia if statutes are governed and judged in this manner?” Mr Farley said.
“(This is) another incremental move to socialism.
“The federal and NSW governments have effectively taken a free carry equity position in agricultural land — akin to a tick on a dog — rent free, unproductive with the capacity to sicken the dog.”
While the ruling wasn’t the result the irrigators had hoped for, Southern Riverina Irrigators chief executive Sophie Baldwin said the case was the first time the MDBA had been held publicly accountable.
“While this determination is extremely disappointing, the class action has not been a loss,” Ms Baldwin said.
“One of the most critical things to come out of the class action was the admission by the MDBA that when they go over-bank they waste between 36 and 41 per cent of the water volume.
“This is a significant admission, and with the continued push to relax constraints and flood both private and public land under the basin plan — effectively this amount of water will be wasted every single time.”
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