Wednesday, 4 August 2021

Flood plain harvesting

Ms CUPPER (Mildura) (19:17): (5967) My adjournment matter is for the acting Minister for Water. The action I seek supports the request made by the member for Shepparton, and that is for the acting water minister to make a submission to the New South Wales Legislative Council’s inquiry into flood plain harvesting. Flood plain harvesting is not a new issue, but it takes on renewed significance given the increasing share foreign owners have in areas of the northern basin. Canada, for instance, now holds 841 000 megalitres of water entitlements in Australia. It is more than four times the amount of water they owned in Australia compared to just three years ago. To put that into perspective, 841 gigalitres is significantly larger than the water allocation given to the entire Victorian irrigation community. What is of concern to my electorate is the fact that major foreign players like Canada are being given too much control over the fate of our river system. Close to half of the water Canadian investors own in Australia is in the northern basin on an unregulated river system. They hold more than 400 gigalitres of water entitlements in a region where unconscionable water practices run rife.

The entire southern basin, including the Mildura electorate, is at the mercy of decisions made further north. We pay the consequences for overextraction upstream, and we need to be able to hold flood plain harvesters to account. It is already bad enough that Australian entities have the ability to flood plain harvest in Queensland and New South Wales, but where foreign multinationals have the same opportunity it is worse and even more dangerous. They have no vested interest in the health of our river system. To them the Murray-Darling Basin is a cash cow half a world away from their home. The gulping up of water by overseas investment firms is not the problem. The problem is what they are allowed to do by virtue of holding significant water licences north of our borders.

Flood plain harvesting rigs the system in favour of deep-pocketed farming entities with expensive excavation equipment. It is effectively stealing from an otherwise regulated system, reducing what is left for farmers who are doing the right thing. Victoria has long led the way in terms of sacrifices made for the Murray-Darling Basin plan, and it is about time New South Wales did its fair share. We cannot risk a repeat of recent years, when the Goulburn and Murray rivers were pushing out unsustainably high flows just to make ends meet. We also cannot risk a repeat of the disastrous fish kills in the lower Darling. Regulation is desperately needed to prevent greedy actions in the northern basin. Submissions to the New South Wales parliamentary inquiry close on 13 August, and I would urge the Victorian government to continue its efforts to fight for better transparency and compliance across the entire basin.