As we will now have a federal election on the 3rd of May 2025, I encourage you to have conversations with people from all different parts of the community to ensure they understand what is important to safegard the Australian irrigation industry. The following links will show you
what the peak industry organisations have as their election policy positions. There are also a number of useful facts about irrigation which
you may be able to utilise in your discussions.
The department sought public feedback in late 2023 on proposed changes to distance restrictions for new or amended bores from other bores or
property boundaries in the Water Sharing Plan for the NSW Great Artesian Basin Groundwater Sources 2020 (the plan).
At this time, feedback from stakeholders indicated that the community needed further information on the proposed changes. To address the
community's questions, we released a Status
Update Document
on 17 February 2025, outlining what’s changing and why. Public feedback on this document and the proposed changes is welcome until 6 April 2025.
Please find included information on a film being screened at the Town and Country Club, 5 Frome St Moree on Friday the 4th of April.
The film writer Leila McDougall will be a special guest at the event.
This screening is proudly sponsored by mcGregor Gourlay Agricultural Services, AFF, NSW Farmers and CWA Moree
The event beguins at 6pm and there is no charge.
The NSW legislative assembly are conducting an inquiry into the Impacts of the Water Amendment (Restoring Our Rivers) Act 2023 on NSW regional communities. The chair is Roy Butler and has been designed to consider the following:
a) the social, economic and environmental impact of repealing limits to the cap on Commonwealth water purchases
b) the risks to the effective implementation of the Federal Water Amendment (Restoring Our Rivers) Act 2023 including unlicensed take of
water and options to address these risks such as rules for floodplain harvesting
c) the impact of Planned Environmental Water rules on the reliability of water allocations in NSW and the Commonwealth's environmental water
holdings
d) the impact of rules-based changes on the reliability of water allocations in NSW, including their impact on different water license
categories
e) the effectiveness and impacts of past water reforms, including community-based water reduction adjustment programs such as the
Strengthening Basin Communities program and Murray-Darling Basin Economic Development Program
f) options to improve future community-based reduction adjustment programs including next rounds of the Sustainable Communities Program
g) any other related matter.
Submissions are Due 14th April 2025.
Today the NSW Government released media
associated with wetlands in the NSW unregulated WSP. There has been significant changes to the proposals, a direct result of the feedback
from each of you. We thank the NSW water Minister and her department for responding to the feedback they received.
There are still however newly prescribed wetlands in the Gwydir. Landholders who still have sites on their land, which they do not support as wetlands have until the 23rd March to provide feedback to the department, as the plan is still subject to change through
the public consultation period.
In addition we will be reinforcing the need for any landholder impacted by these new and all existing wetlands to be directly consulted by
the department. Gazetting a wetland without appropriate consultation is not acceptable.
The updates on the
department website
include mapped wetland areas limited to internationally significant Ramsar listed wetlands, those registered in the Directory of Important
Wetlands of Australia, any wetlands already receiving protection in the current water sharing plans and wetlands identified as ecologically
and/or culturally significant in previously exhibited floodplain management plans.
People can also attend a webinar
from 12.30-1.30pm on Wednesday 12 March 2025 to learn more.
The Basin Plan 2012 was made under Part 2 of the Water Act 2007 (Cth) (the Water Act) to guide the management and sharing of water in the
Basin in a more sustainable way. There have been hugh changes to water management as a result.
Summary of findings:
Four NSW Water resource plans remain to be accredited - the Gwydir is one of them.
All 54 SDL resource units within non-accredited WRP did not exceed compliance triggers in 2022-23
As of June 2024 there had been 2,131.7GL/yr Surface water recovered, only 22GL remained at that stage. 35.25GL/yr of groundwater had been
recovered with only 3.2GL remaining.
This year we expect to see the Sustainable Rivers Audit and the Basin Plan evaluation, these together with the Outlook for the Basin, Sustainable Yields and Discussion Paper will be utilised as an evidence base for the 2026 Basin Plan Review.
Irrigators question recent efforts by Minister Plibersek to consider socio-economic impacts of buybacks
25 February 2025, Canberra, ACT – Irrigators call out Minister Plibersek’s decision to sign off[
on purchasing another 100 GL of water in the southern Basin with questionable procurement processes and deliberately narrow evidence to
support the decision.
“The advice before the Minister to inform the decision is flawed,” said Zara Lowien, CEO of National Irrigators’ Council.
“The additional 170 GL of water (from a 2024 round and this new one), will cause a significant increase in water allocation price of around
7.2% in the southern Murray Darling, and impact some industries particularly hard, such as rice, with an estimated 6.48% drop in water use.”
“The narrow assessment only looked at buying back 170 GL/y of water and apportioned $84 million annual production losses, ignoring that more
than 2,100 GL/y is now recovered with an estimated annual farm-gate production loss between $602 million - $914 million.”
“Can the Minister really say she has considered socio-economic impacts, if the impact assessment is designed to not capture the full
impacts?” said Ms Lowien.
“Worse still, the evidence highlighted the range of government programs aimed at mitigating the known socio-economic impacts but failed to
mention the minimal progress of these other strategies”.
“Updates show there are no ‘new’ efficiency alternatives contracted, no land and water partnerships, and only NSW has signed up to their
flagship program: Sustaining Basin Communities.”
In a clearly political move to win city votes at the expense of regional Australia, the Commonwealth has today kicked off a second buyback
tender in the southern Murray-Darling Basin in 2024-25. NSW Irrigators’ Council CEO Claire Miller said with an election due any moment,
“today’s announcement is clearly intended to try to win city votes while throwing regional communities, farmers and even the environment
under the bus. “Today we learn the Government is full steam ahead to buy up to another 100 billion litres in 2025, on top of the 70 billion
litres from its first tender opened last year. “The minister claims she considers social and economic impacts before approving buybacks.
Considers maybe, but clearly ignores when ABARES says past and planned water recovery wipes $602 million – $914 million every year from
what the farmgate value of irrigated agriculture would otherwise be.
“The one-off $300 million assistance package will not even touch the sides of what irrigation-dependent communities need when the Government
is stripping hundreds of millions of dollars in income from their economies every year.
“We also know that while more than 3000 GL recovered to date is delivering important, localised environmental benefits, more water will not
deliver the Basin-wide step change needed to reverse declining native fish and static waterbird populations, and improve water quality.
19 February 2025, Canberra, ACT – The release of the Auditor General’s report of the Federal Government’s water
buybacks finds the Government implemented a well-paved road of effective process but struggled to find the link between the buyback program
and the intended policy objectives for the Murray Darling Basin Plan.
“Many will glance at the key findings of effective process and give the Government a pat on the back, but the devil is in the detail when
the report goes on to question the link between the buyback program and the intended policy objectives for the environment” said National
Irrigators’ Council CEO, Ms Lowien.
“It found that the buyback program, designed to bridge the gap between current diversions and the Basin Plan’s Sustainable Diversion Limits
(SDLs), was a well-paved road but questions, to where?”, said Ms Lowien.
“Achieving Sustainable Diversion Limits in the Basin was the centrepiece of the Basin Plan, but achieving the broader environmental
objectives requires going beyond just adding water,”
“Government reporting indicates that SDLs are enforced and being achieved– so it’s fair to ask the question, as the Auditor General infers,
why is the Government buying more water and not investing in other solutions?” said Ms Lowien.
Proposals by Water NSW and WAMC would result in water prices to increase by 170% within five years. “Here in the Gwydir valley, we grow
pecans, oranges for fruit juice, as well as cotton, all of which is at risk due to these exorbitant proposed price hikes,” Mr Cush said.
“But this is not just about farmers – households in Moree and other towns will also be hit through council water utilities, as well as other
water licence holders like local golf clubs, rugby and cricket grounds and children’s parks.”
The Telemetry Uplift Program aims to assist eligible water users in the Murray-Darling Basin with compliance to the metering rules, to
ensure water taken from inland regional water sources is extracted fairly, equitably and according to the rules.
By opting in to the program, eligible water users will be offered free telemetry devices, including a local intelligence device (LID) and
data logger.
The $10.5 million Australian Government funded program will benefit over 2,500 eligible water users.
Register your interest by 31 March 2025 to receive further information and make sure you don’t miss out.
The NSW Government is calling for expressions of interest to participate in the Australian Government’s next round of National Water Grid
funding applications, likely in June 2025.
The National Water Grid initiative makes funding available for priority water infrastructure projects to improve the reliability and
security of water for Australia’s regional and remote towns, agriculture and primary industry sectors.
Expressions of interest for the next funding round must be submitted no later than 11:00 pm (AEDT) on Thursday 27 February 2025, to allow
sufficient time to prepare proposals and for the Water Group to have further discussions with proponents.
The pricing proposals put to IPART for review by Water NSW and Water Administration Ministerial Corporation (WAMC) in November 2024 are we
believe excessive. The GVIA have made submissions on both proposals and have had a one on one meeting with the IPART WAMC and WaterNSW
regional and rural water price review teams to discuss our concerns. The team at NSWIC have also prepared a submission and held a meeting
with IPART.
Submissions to the IPART Issues paper are available here
Cotton Australia, National Irrigators' Council and Border Rivers Food and Fibre, met with the Hon Ann Leahy, QLD Minister for Local
Government and Water, to discuss the proposed National Water Agreement (NWA) and provide insights into matters of concern.
Cotton Australia General Manager Michael Murray acknowledged that the current public draft of the agreement was much improved on previous
versions released throughout last year, but there were still matters of significant concern and an overriding question as to what benefit
signing the agreement would bring to a state like Queensland.
“Given the states are being asked to sign this agreement, but no money has been put on the table, it is hard to see why a state would
voluntarily limit some of its decision-making capacity and commit significant resources to developing implementation plans, even if the
proposed NWA was a good document that could be supported by stakeholders,” Mr Murray said.
Key areas of concern include:
The inclusion of the statement giving Indigenous Australians a concept of “Free, Prior and Informed Consent,” but no clarity on what this
actually means within the context of water management, despite the glossary section assuring that it does not mean a right of veto.
The retention of the Risk Assignment framework (currently in the National Water Initiative) that allows, under some circumstances, the
recovery of water from entitlement holders without compensation, where industry holds that if water recovery is required, it should be
through market-based mechanisms.
A lack of recognition of the importance of irrigated agriculture in the draft.
Inclusion of a clause encouraging jurisdictions to move towards “Upper Bound” pricing, fortunately something Queensland rejects.
Cotton Australia will continue to work with the National Irrigators' Council, National Farmers Federation, Queensland Farmers Federation,
and NSW Irrigators' Council to provide feedback to the federal and state governments on how this draft agreement can be improved.
Read More
The NSW Government invites NSW stakeholders who have participated in the Australian Government’s consultations on a new national water
agreement to join one of three online workshops to discuss the updated draft agreement.
The NSW-hosted workshops are an opportunity to:
discuss how feedback from NSW stakeholders has been incorporated into the updated draft agreement published by the Australian
Government in December 2024
share any outstanding concerns ahead of the National Water Committee meeting in early February 2025.
To register for a workshop, please select one of the links below:
Please find included the link to the NSWIC December newsletter.
The GVIA work closely with the NSWIC to ensure we are able to advocate as strongly as possible for our members. This partnership will
continue into 2025, and we thank our members for supporting the NSWIC through their levees.
Issues covered in the newsletter include: Water pricing, the National Water Agreement, WSP and MDBA Constraints roadmap.
Included is the link to the 7 News regional from Thursday 9th January, where NSW National Party leader Dougal Saunders and Macquarie Food and Fibre Executive Officer Michael Drum talk about the implications from the proposals to add hundreds of newly prescribed wetlands into unregulated Water Sharing Plans across the state.
The media talks about lack of consultation with landholders, implications for property sales and valuations and the use of remote sensing to identify the sites in question. It raises the need for compensation where there are impacts to landholders ability to run their
businesses.
1 x 38 ML (megalitres) of Lower Gwydir Groundwater allocation for sale. You can bid in price/megalitre by emailing gvia@gvia.org.au before
5pm Friday 28th February 2025. The buyer will be required to cover the WaterNSW application and dealing fees and the GVIA transaction
fee of $55.00 (Inc GST). Please note as of July 2024, there have been changes to the process for tiaging and assessing groundwater temporary
trades. More
information is available here.
6 January 2025: WaterNSW advises customers on the Gwydir River below Tyreel Weir that demand may exceed channel capacity in mid-January and
throughout the remainder of the irrigation season.
Water demand on the Lower Gwydir recently exceeded delivery capacity, resulting in temporary water delivery shortfalls in lower reaches of
the Gwydir.
Customers are encouraged to extract water only at ordered rates and only ordered volumes.
Whilst current water orders and subsequent delivery forecast does not indicate a return to demand exceeding delivery capacity in the
immediate future, it is anticipated that delivery constraints will occur throughout late January and early February 2025.
Rostering of available channel capacity will occur if a return to demand exceeding available capacity occurs as was last experienced in
January 2018.
For account enquiries please contact 1300 662 077.
More information: Visit WaterInsights to view announcements and sign up for notifications at waterinsights.waternsw.com.au. Issued by: Water Operations North
Today the MDBA have released the Constraints Relaxation Implementation Roadmap. Constraints relaxation were identified as a necessary component to enhance environmental outcomes from water recovery in the original Basin Plan. They were the driving force behind schedule 5
Enhanced environmental outcomes to increase the volume of water resources available for environmental use by 450 GL per year. There will be
challenges for producers in our region. The roadmap states:
"New South Wales is also at an advanced stage in the planning of constraints relaxation implementation in the Gwydir. Engagement with
stakeholders and landholders has identified key issues to delivery that mean full implementation will likely extend beyond December 2026.
The Australian and NSW governments are working together to rescope the Reconnecting Watercourse Country Program to ensure tangible outcomes
are delivered to relax system constraints in the Gwydir by December 2026. In April 2025, NSW will provide an options assessment report to the Commonwealth identifying the preferred delivery option for a rescoped program."
The Draft Gwydir unregulated Water Sharing Plan includes 327 newly prescribed wetlands. If you have one of these on your property, or
neighbouring your property you may wish to put in a submission to the NSW government raising your concerns.
The included template is an example of what you might like to use
in your submission to the NSW Government. Please replace the text highlighted yellow with your thoughts for the wetland you are concerned
about. If you have any questions please don't hesitate to contact the GVIA on 02 6752 1399.
Anyone can put in a submission, these are due on the 2nd of February 2025.
The following link provides a number of documents, including an interactive map regarding the water sharing plan and the wetlands.
The department are hosting a webinar on the wetlands on Monday 9th December, You can register
here.
The DCCEEW will be hosting a webinar on the draft Water Sharing Plan for the Gwydir Unregulated River Water Sources 2025.
This webinar on Tuesday 19th November 2024 from 12 noon will cover the following topics:
the draft water sharing plan
the public exhibition details, and
how to make a submission.
A question-and-answer session will be held at the end of the webinar. Please include your questions when you register
at the link below.
Alternatively email your questions to wspconsultation@dpie.nsw.gov.au.
There will also be a meeting in Bingara on Wednesday 27th November 2024. Register
hereRead More
WaterNSW pricing proposal to double cost of rural water
Rural water users in NSW could see their costs more than double over the next five years if IPART accepts the WaterNSW pricing proposal released today.
NSW Irrigators’ Council CEO Claire Miller said pricing proposal recommends hiking water bills by 21-24% every year for five years, adding up
to $40,000 to a ‘typical’ farmer’s water bill by 2030.
“NSWIC is alarmed by this proposal and urges stakeholders across industries to understand the implications. Many stakeholders are not fully
informed about the proposed prices, leaving them at risk of being unprepared until it is too late,” Ms Miller said.
This month’s focus is on Water Sharing Plans, what they are and why we need them. The presentation will cover how water sharing plans
are remade and outline which inland plans are due to be remade by 1 July, 2025 and how you can comment on the proposed
changes.
Speakers from the Water Group at the NSW Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water include:
Peter Hyde, Director Inland Water Planning
Antonia Morrow, Senior Advisor, Water Engagement team
Included is the NSW Irrigators Council September Newsletter. This includes commentary on;
Concerns raised by the Inspector-General for Water Compliance in an audit of DCCEEW, (federal) protocols to prevent insider trading on its
Bridging the Gap (BTG) water buyback.
The release of the latest round of water buybacks under Bridging the Gap, aimed at recovering water to meet Sustainable Diversion Limits (SDLs) in the Condamine-Balonne and NSW Border Rivers.
The National Water Agreement which introducers a range of concerning proposals under the 302 principles that the federal government is trying to rush though before the next election.
The National Ag Rally - and the complete lack of consultation with farmers in areas which are critical to the sustainability of the industry
- our Chair Jim Cush joins the 1-2,000 at the front of parliament house.
The National Farmers Federation (NFF) is holding a farmer rally in Canberra to highlight the key issues impacting on Australian agriculture and its communities -- including the Murray-Darling Basin Plan. If you cannot make the rally NFF have a petition
going.
The MDBA published the 2022-23
Sustainable Diversion Limit Accounts
on 2 August. It shows water use across the Basin was 23 per cent below the 2022-23 SDLs, continuing the pattern of chronic and
persistent water underuse since the 1994 Cap.
In NSW Basin valleys, water use was 16.6 per cent, or 1105 GL, under the state's SDLs for 2022-23. The Gwydir diverted 26%, or
214.5GL less than its 2022-23 SDL.
Several other valleys were also well under, including:
Barwon-Darling diverted 34 per cent, or 155 GL, less than its 2022-23 SDL.
NSW Murray diverted 25 per cent, or 342.6 GL, less than its 2022-23 SDL.
Macquarie-Castlereagh diverted 27 per cent, or 231 GL, less than its 2022-23 SDL
Since accounting began on 1 July 2019, water use across the Basin has consistently remained below the SDLs, accumulating a 5076 GL credit in
unused water
Read More
The Water Engagement Roundup is a live monthly webinar about all ongoing and upcoming engagements and consultation on important water
policy, reforms and programs for New South Wales, and includes a guest presentation topic each month. This month’s focus topic is a deep
dive into some of our work under the Hydrometric Networks and Remote Sensing Program, following with an open question and answer
session.
Speakers from the Water Group at the NSW Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water include:
Mustak Shaikh, Principal Remote Sensing/Geospatial, Water Knowledge
Kilian Vos, Senior Remote Sensing Analyst, Water Knowledge
Antonia Morrow, Senior Advisor, Water Engagement team
The most recent NSWIC newsletter provides details of some of the challenges being faced by water entitlement holders across NSW. The
GVIA are working with NSWIC on the issues that will directly impact our region. Most critical at present is the Connectivity Panel
report. Over the next few weeks we will provide you more insight into how or what actions we can progress.
Moderate rainfall and constant river flows were experienced across the Gwydir catchment during 2023–24. Major flooding occurred across the
Gwydir River floodplain during March and April 2023.
Water managers used water for the environment during the 2023–24 water year to support fish communities in rivers and create connections to
the Barwon River, the Mallowa Creek, and low flows into the Gingham Watercourse to fill waterholes by season’s end.
In planning for 2024–25, water managers have applied:
a set of principles and triggers to guide the watering of key water-dependent assets
an adaptive approach to support fish and downstream ecological connectivity.
As of June 2024, the El Niño–Southern Oscillation outlook is neutral. That is, neither La Niña nor El Niño conditions are favoured as
oceanic and atmospheric indicators have returned to neutral levels. International climate models suggest neutral El Niño–Southern
Oscillation conditions will persist through the southern winter, but there are some signs that La Niña conditions could form later in the
2024–25 water year.
Read More
WaterNSW has recently installed a new Hydrometric gauging station on Gurley creek at Tyrone road. This gauge will be able to provide river height data as soon as there is water in Gurley creek. There may be a delay in it's ability to provide accurate flow information.
On 4 July 2024, the Australian Government released the Framework for delivering the 450 GL of additional environmental water.
The Framework sets out how the government will recover 450 GL of water for enhanced environmental outcomes.
There are three programs:
The Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water (DCCEEW) is hosting a 60 minute an online public webinar to provide an
update at 12:00pm (AEST) on 17 July 2024, including representatives from DCCEEW and the Murray-Darling Basin Authority. More details and
resources can be found here: https://linktr.ee/dcceew_waterRead More
General security (GS) licences and the Environmental Water Allowance (EWA) in the Gwydir regulated river water source have received an allocation of 1% of their entitlement. Since the last assessment, rainfall has continued to elevate inflows above minimums and losses remain
lower than the budgeted volume resulting in the 1% allocation increment. Inflows into Copeton Dam in June were 18.1 gigalitre (GL) and
downstream tributary inflows added about another 3.0 GL to the system. Total essential supply demand was about 1 GL, and general security
usage was approximately 1 GL. There were no EWA orders in June. Water currently available to GS water users totals 469.7 GL, or an average
92% of entitlement. The Environmental Water Allowance (EWA) account balance is about 89 GL or about 199% full.
The program outlines the proposed strategic purchasing framework for the $100mill available to purchase aboriginal water. It will
be delivered under an interim governance arrangement. The Commonwealth will hold entitlements until an enduring governance mechanism is
designed. This governance mechanism will eventually take over the management of water entitlements acquired during the interim period. The Australian Government Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water will commence purchasing entitlements under an
interim governance structure that includes an Advisory Group and a Directorate composed of aboriginal People. The structure aims to ensure decision-making is culturally and commercially informed
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