Taxpayer value focus for irrigated agriculture probe

That’s the critical question underpinning a new political investigation underway by the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Agriculture and Water Resources.

Federal Agriculture and Water Resources Minister Barnaby Joyce requested the inquiry into water use efficiency to commence on February 9 and while it has not yet published a final reporting date, stakeholders are being urged to make submissions by March 31.

The House Committee inquiry is being chaired by WA rural Liberal MP Rick Wilson who hails from a mixed family farming enterprise at Katanning in the state’s Wheatbelt where his crops and pastures are rain-fed.

Other committee members include; deputy-chair and NSW Labor MP Meryl Swanson; Chair of the Coalition’s agricultural backbench committee and SA Liberal MP Tony Pasin: and Victorian Nationals MP Andrew Broad.

Former Chair and SA rural Liberal MP Rowan Ramsey remains on the Committee which inquired into agricultural innovation, anti-dumping measures and country of origin food labelling in the previous parliament.

Mr Wilson is first to admit he holds limited knowledge about controversial water policy debates with an east coast focus, like the Murray Darling Basin Plan.

But he said he aims to learn more about the history and current state of play of such policy debates and will focus on ensuring the inquiry investigates the return on taxpayer investments in irrigated agriculture, nationwide.

Mr Wilson and the Committee will tour irrigated farming regions in various states during the inquiry, starting with a fact-finding mission at Griffith in southern NSW this week.

That’s where copies of the guide to the draft Basin Plan were infamously torched at a public meeting in late 2010 as the controversial water sharing proposal hit fever pitch over a threatening proposal to strip large volumes of water from farmers in the system, to achieve what many considered to be ideological environmental outcomes.

In late 2011, as the draft Basin Plan was released to launch an extensive public consultation period over its proposed base-line target of 2750 gigaliters in environmental water flows, Griffith was again the scene of a large and heated public meeting which made a significant statement about local objections.

It was attended by an estimated 12,000 people who lauded then Opposition leader Tony Abbott’s appearance while jeering the then Federal Water Minister Tony Burke.

A mock coffin was carried into the meeting saying, “RIP Basin Communities” as locals warned the large future loss of irrigation water would decimate communities in the nation’s premier food bowl and threaten their economic sustainability.

The final Basin Plan signed by Mr Burke in late 2012 had a 2750GLs target for Sustainable Diversion Limits plus a controversial 450GLs delivery mechanism for South Australia backed by about $1.8b in government investment which Mr Wilson said the House Committee inquiry would also examine.

Mr Wilson said the Murray Darling Basin had been a “very hot” issue in recent times while the federal government had also invested record amounts on money in upgrading infrastructure, in trying to maximise water-use efficiency for irrigated agriculture.

He said the inquiry would examine the efficiency of that government investment and how it was now working and aim to arrive at, “some sort of conclusion on whether water allocations are appropriate and whether the 450GLs in additional environmental water flows, would be achieved”.

“Does the government need to invest more or have we already invested too much?” he said.

“These are the sort of questions the Committee will be looking at.

“The inquiry is about irrigation and water use efficiency and government investment in that.

“The federal government - in both the previous Labor government and in this government - has continued a huge investment program and we want to see if that program is achieving the desired outcomes and if not, what policy changes the government may need to put in place to achieve those outcomes.”

Mr Wilson said the final Basin Plan document ended up producing a bipartisan outcome at 2750GLs with the additional 450GLs for the southern-system, but he was also interested to see what the current mood was of farming communities, impacted by the water reduction proposals.

He said several committee members also wanted to visit the Ord irrigated farming region in northern WA to analyse hefty government investments aimed at developing that system over time.

“I’m personally interested to see whether the taxpayer is getting value for money in that particular scheme,” he said.

“There’s been some talk that one of the side benefits of Coal Seam Gas mining in Queensland has been the water that’s been made available for irrigated farming so that’s another aspect we’ll touch on, in the inquiry.

“We’ll also take a look at some of the investment in irrigation infrastructure efficiencies that’s been made in Tasmania.”

This week, the Committee held a series of meetings and tours in the Murrumbidgee Irrigation Area, but did not conduct any formal hearings of the inquiry,

Committee members met with the Murrumbidgee Irrigation board and other stakeholders, observing local irrigation facilities while holding talks with aquaculture and rice, cotton and horticulture growers about on-farm modernisation works and other network features.

Mr Joyce has prioritised dam-building, backed by multi-billion dollar government investment schemes to boost construction of irrigated agriculture infrastructure, as one of the features of his ministry and Nationals’ leadership.

His goal is to enhance economic activity in regional communities through expanded farm production, while growing the national economy with farm exports forecast to surpass $60b this year.