After 12 years of coalition rule, many involved with water and the Murray Darling Basin Plan believe the Labor government has a clean slate and are hopeful of improved outcomes over the next four years.
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Fairer floodplain harvesting (FPH) regulations, a review of the Basin Plan and an end of system flow targets for the Darling-Baaka River are just some of the items on the wishlist of Southern Riverina Irrigators (SRI) and its CEO, Sophie Baldwin, is keen for the water minister to make a positive impact.
"The Labor government can distance themselves from the previous 12 years of coalition government neglect and affect some real change in the water space, if they have the political will and desire to do so," she said.
"We have already met with the water minister and our initial conversations have been positive.
"We will reserve our judgement but we are hoping to see some much needed policy change over the next four years.
"There needs to be a complete review of the Basin Plan with a moratorium on buybacks until all legislated reviews are completed so we can actually understand the impacts on the triple bottom line (financial, social, and environmental impacts)."
Ms Baldwin believes NSW should support Victoria and call for a halt to any NSW Sustainable Diversion Limit Adjustment Mechanism projects.
She said this was particularly the case given MDBA modelling had shown relaxed constraints could not deliver 80,000 megalitres a day at the South Australian border, open the Murray mouth 95 per cent of the time, or deliver on proposed environmental outcomes.
She said there needed to be an acknowledgement that irrigation was dual purpose water and there was environmental opportunity in agriculture.
With an impending fifth disallowance on FPH regulations likely to be put before parliament by The Greens' Cate Faehrmann next Tuesday, Ms Baldwin said they have been important in stopping the National Party continually licensing FPH above the legislated legal level of take of 46 gigalitres.
"SRI will continue to support anyone politically who has the drive to stand up for the Darling-Baaka and southern basin communities," Ms Baldwin said.
"A FPH licensing volume of 350GL plus a 500pc carryover is not just unsustainable, it also impacts the health of river system and puts at risk a $24 billion staple food industry across the southern basin.
"We all have to eat so we must prioritise staple food production, a healthy environment and a sustainable river system because we can't have one without the other.
"When water reform began in earnest in Australia in the mid-1990s, the population was around 18 million.
"By 2050 our population will have doubled and yet our irrigation farmers will be expected to grow double the food using half the water.
"We can't continue to take water from productive agriculture, for sometimes questionable environmental outcomes, and not face the very real possibility of starving in this country.
"We run the risk of becoming a net importer of food and we have already seen the impacts a global pandemic has on the cost of imports and deliverability.
"NSW Murray general security allocation reliability has dropped from 84pc to 52pc over the last two decades and yet we produce around $6 billion in staple food production annually.
"The demise in dairy production in the Murray dairy region from a peak of 3.1 billion litres to 1.6b litres is directly linked to high water prices and availability of water."
Ms Baldwin believes irrigation supports biodiversity on farms and with the majority of the southern basin land used for some sort of agricultural industry, she sees a real opportunity in supporting both irrigation and the environment. Generational farmers are now some of the best environmentalists in the country protecting remnant vegetation, wetlands and planting trees, while also growing food.
Ms Baldwin said despite a review of NSW water legislated for every five years, there had been no legislative review of the Basin Plan and it was in desperate need of one.
"We want to see a transparent review of the social, environmental and economic impacts of the Basin Plan and a halt on buybacks until this is completed," she said.
"We want to see a connected river system and licensing of FPH to the legislated legal level of take.
"We want the MDBA to acknowledge SDLAM (sustainable diversion limit adjustment mecanism) projects are undeliverable and will only increase flood risk to Riverina communities and impact staple food production."
The most recent Murray-Darling Basin Plan progress assessment stated that of the 36 supply and constraints projects, 22 were likely to be operable, eight were close to delivery and six would not be delivered as originally proposed by the June 30, 2024, deadline.
Ms Baldwin said buybacks were not the answer.
"If the government continues with proposed buybacks, 49GL under 'bridging the gap', 340GL SDL shortfall and 450GL of upwater, that volume equates to more than the annual productive volume of water that goes through the Murray Irrigation Limited footprint," she said.
"We would say goodbye to not just our Australian grown rice, but 20,000 manufacturing jobs as well.
"Irrigation underpins the success of our rural communities."
