SRI chief executive Sophie Baldwin said at the core of the problem was the complete lack of information about what the Federal Government will do to replace, or at least offset, irrigation as a key economic driver for our region.
“Irrigation generates wealth for the Australian economy while feeding the nation, but just as importantly, it also underpins the success of our rural communities and keeps families in the area and without it we are nothing,” Ms Baldwin said.
“[Federal Water Minister Tanya] Plibersek talks about sustainable community programs as if they are the saviour for us all, while the reality is something very different.
“If you take away water, which is the key economic driver of our rural communities and replace it with nothing, but a new park or football shed, it soon becomes pointless when people move away because there are no jobs and businesses close down.”
Ms Baldwin said the Riverina doesn’t want ‘community adjustment’.
“We want thriving rural communities and economic resilience which comes from a strong irrigation sector remaining in place.
“You only have to look at what happened to Wakool back in the early 2000s, when 34 per cent of the available water was purchased through buybacks.
“Total employment fell by 54 per cent and within a decade, we had the closure of the Burraboi school, the local football and tennis club folded, we lost the dairy industry and enrolments at Wakool Primary School fell from 50 to under 10.”
Ms Baldwin said every megalitre which leaves through buybacks “impacts our community, making it financially unviable for those irrigators who want to continue because costs increase”.
“They then become what Plibersek loves to call a voluntary seller, when in actual fact they are nothing but victims of a mismanaged system, disillusioned and distressed sellers.”
