Minister for Water and the Environment Tanya Plibersek has said that water buybacks are still on the table to recover 450 gigalitres of water for the environment, but that other options would be explored first.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Ms Plibersek recently made an announcement at Campbell's Swamp of a biodiversity market and a new water-saving measure at Nap Nap Station, meeting Murrumbidgee Landcare in the process.
The Area News asked Ms Plibersek about the Commonwealth government's plan to save 450 gigalitres for the environment, where she said she wasn't ruling out buybacks but that they would be attempting to find other avenues.
"We're not talking about buybacks at this stage. I'm not ruling them out, but that's not my first choice as a way of solving this," Ms Plibersek said.
"I know what the goal is, I'm agnostic about how we get there. I'm not out to strong-arm anyone - if we can do this in the most co-operative way, that's great."
Both the region's state and federal members have raised concerns over the impacts that water buybacks could have on irrigators, especially, but also towns.
Member for Farrer Sussan Ley, who herself served as Environment Minister for three years in the Morrison government, said that she was concerned about a lack of legislation ruling out buybacks as an option and accused the current government of misunderstanding the role of water in the region.
"We ruled out buybacks, and we put careful social and economic considerations around recovering any volume of the 450 gigalitres, that Labor and Tanya Plibersek have put back on the table," she said.
"We know an approach that buys back our water will take us right back to the previous water buyback."
READ MORE
While the Morrison government did rule out buybacks, it notably only recovered two gigalitres of the 450 promised.
At a state level, Member for Murray Helen Dalton had similar concerns and was against the recovery of the 450 gigalitres as a whole.
"I have been a fierce opponent ... I've been fiercely in opposition of the 450. It's not deliverable, and yet she's not listening. She's not even listening to me in far of meeting up with me," Mrs Dalton said.
"She needs to talk to more people on the ground ... she doesn't have an understanding of the numbers, 450 is not deliverable."
Our journalists work hard to provide local, up-to-date news to the community. This is how you can access our trusted content:
- Bookmark www.areanews.com.au
- Make sure you are signed up for our breaking and regular headlines newsletters
- Follow us on Twitter
- Follow us on Instagram
- Follow us on Google News