THE Federal Budget is out and the Federal Government is pedalling a $22.7b Future Made in Australia package, which is rather ironic, when on the other hand they are stripping the guts out of one of their key economic drivers for rural communities and our country – irrigated agriculture.
The Federal Government and Minister for Water Tanya Plibersek are determined to plunder another 700GL away from productive agriculture via their restoring our rivers bill and other basin plan program shortfalls.
Albo’s government can’t have it all.
On one hand they want Australia to be an indispensable part of the global economy and yet they are taking water away from irrigation and our ability to produce staple food and generate wealth by wasting water out to sea at South Australia.
Labor need to change their colour from red to green.
Irrigation underpins so many facets of our rural communities, from small local business and transport to major industry and manufacturing.
I can’t see how Australia can become a huge player in the global economy when agriculture is continually kneecapped.
It is a well-known fact that every dollar generated by agriculture has a flow on effect of between $4 to $7 into the wider community, depending on the commodity.
I would like to know what the Albanese government is going to replace this major economic driver with, when they buy back the majority of productive water we have in our irrigation footprint.
It is just absolute madness in my view.
Not only does the Labor government want to shut irrigation down, they are also refusing to enlighten the public on the real cost of buying this water, suppressing this information in the budget and stating it is not for publication.
Not only do you have the initial cost of buying back water, you will also lose billions of dollars of potential economic generation year after year and its radio silence.
We can hardly become an economic powerhouse when we won’t even be able to produce enough food to feed our nation in a decades time.
Sophie Baldwin
Chief executive officer
Southern Riverina Irrigators
