An irrigators ‘free-for-all’ or the mere formalisation of an existing right?
Maddi Reynolds reports
New South Wales is set to formalise its floodplain harvesting mechanisms with the introduction of licensing under the NSW Healthy Floodplains program.
The ABC released two reports about this introduction; firstly, an online report and secondly, a Sunday evening news story, aired on May 27, 2018.
The reports were met with much discontent, particularly from the irrigation community, who believe this to be another campaign against them by the national broadcaster.
“There are a lot of factual errors and opinion pieces in this story,” said Grant Tranter, executive officer of the Macquarie River Food and Fibre organisation.
Tranter believes the reports suggest that the amendments to the Water Management Act 2000 were new plans by the government and that they would increase floodplain take by irrigators.
“The interesting part is we are taking about licensing this water, and it is being said it was unlicensed. But it wasn’t, it was permitted take.”
Michael Murray, executive officer of Cotton Australia, agrees.
“Any reasonable person reading the article without much knowledge of water could come away with a view that what the NSW Government was doing was licensing a huge increase… All they are doing is licensing what was already allowed,” said Mr Murray.
“This was our single biggest issue with this article. There was no attempt to really explain the situation.”
Floodplain harvesting was permitted under the former Water Act 1912 (NSW) and is currently being moved to a licensing framework under the current Water Management Act 2000 (NSW).
Under the Water Reform Action Plan, stakeholders were able to lodge submissions regarding this.
“This is a good news story..."
“This is a good news story,” said Mr Tranter.
“It means that the take from the floodplains won’t grow in the coming years and that it will be monitored and measured. There’s no extra take of water.”
Take will be determined by water volumes and license share and will incorporate historical access to ensure no new access is likely to be granted.
Jeff Connor, a Professor in Water Economics a the University of South Australia and former economist at CSIRO, believes that while the licensing scheme will result in a greater utilisation of water, there is legitimate concern for those further downstream.
“What they’re getting now is a property right for water,” said Mr Connor.
“The irrigators in the upper part of the Darling basin can divert the water early and sell on the rights to other people … it is a one water user against another kind of situation.”
Mr Tranter disagrees.
“It is not going to change anything for people down stream. If anything, it is going to make it better because everything is going to be accounted for and licensed.”
A representative from the Gwydir Valley Irrigators Association added that, in principle, irrigators “do not support the trading of floodplain licenses as the opportunity of access is inherent to the farm location and development.”
The ABC is yet to respond to the complaints brought forward by Cotton Australia, the Macquarie River Food and Fibre Association and the Gwydir Valley Irrigators Association about the reports.
Editors Note:
TOSS acknowledges the Gwydir Valley Irrigators Associations’ media statement regarding factual errors in the ABC’s report. TOSS recognises that water management is an incredibly complex issue and that our reporters do not have the expertise to present further arguments surrounding this debate. We have decided instead to link the statement below for our audience’s reference.
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