South Australian irrigators are concerned about the effect on their towns of yesterday's new Murray Darling Basin plan for voluntary water buybacks. The revised plan would see hundreds of gigalitres of water returned to the environment, but many farmers fear it will affect their livelihoods.
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00:00 Farmer Ben Hazlett wouldn't have a livelihood without water, and he's worried about what
00:07 buybacks could do to his community.
00:09 Removing that water removes the power to produce, so we've got to understand how we manage that,
00:15 how communities manage that.
00:16 A new deal struck between the federal government and the Greens could see 700 gigalitres of
00:22 water returned to the environment through voluntary buyback of water licences.
00:27 Some irrigators fear this would be devastating for the broader community and economy if there's
00:31 not enough water for farmers.
00:33 The thing we're having to answer as a community and as Australia here is how much water are
00:38 we taking out of the consumptive pool.
00:40 And what that means is how much water have we got to produce the food and the fibre that
00:45 Australia needs.
00:46 The planned buybacks are controversial in many River Murray communities, but could be
00:50 a way for irrigators to leave struggling industries like wine grapes.
00:54 I think there's a lot of people in financial stress in certain industries.
00:57 I think they'll be looking at what's available.
01:00 By delivering on the environmental benefits through allowing buybacks, we are in fact
01:04 securing the economic future of south-eastern Australia.
01:08 The Restoring Our Rivers Bill still needs the support of at least two crossbenchers
01:12 to amend the Basin Plan.
01:14 This afternoon at least one vote appears to have been secured.
01:18 Giving some life to a plan that's creating waves among river communities.
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