Labor rips heart out of NSW Basin communities with another ‘lazy’ water buyback

Rural NSW communities in the Murray Darling Basin will suffer severely as a result of the Rudd Government’s latest and largest water buyback, according to NSW Nationals Senator Fiona Nash. The Deputy Leader of the Nationals in the Senate was reacting to Water Minister Penny Wong’s announcement the Rudd Government has just spent $303 million to buy back 240 gigalitres of entitlement from multinational agribusiness, the Twynam Agricultural Group. Senator Nash said the money would likely end up leaving Australia’s shores with little or no immediate benefit for the environment. “The flow-on effects of this buy-back will potentially be devastating for regional communities. The government has done absolutely no work on the social and economic impacts of this decision.” “This is lazy policy from the Government and bad news for rural communities still reeling from the drought.” “The Nationals and others from the land, have repeatedly told Minister Wong that to fix the Basin’s water problems we need to generate efficiencies by fixing and improving irrigation infrastructure, but Labor has put that in the too hard basket.” “As NSW Irrigators Council CEO Andrew Gregson pointed out today, not one cent of the money Labor promised for infrastructure has been spent in New South Wales.” “Australian agriculture is about the only industry sector which is weathering the Rudd Recession, yet it is under constant assault by a Government which clearly doesn’t understand the devastating impacts of its water policies, not just on rural communities, but on Australia’s future food security, Senator Nash concluded.

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