This month's newsletter bids a farewell to outgoing CEO, Claire Miller and introduces new CEO Dr Madeleine Hartley.
Claire has done a wonderful job over the past five years helping to grow the membership and profile of the organisation and hence help get the voice of irrigators heard in the community, many of you will have heard her on the Country hour. Thank you for everything Claire.
The new CEO Madeleine will bring a different skill set, with a legal background, something that will no doubt be useful as the Council
navigates a path for members through the new NRAR enforcement bill introduced to the upper house last week. We look forward to working with
you in the years to come.
As of Tuesday the Gwydir Unregulated Water Sharing Plan has lapsed.
Water users are still required to operate in accordance with their existing licence and works approval conditions.
WaterNSW will continue to apply dealings (water trades) and approvals as per the current plan provisions, so license holders will still be
able to conduct trades.
* Local Water utilities and stock and domestic licence holders have received maximum (100%) allocation
* Regulated High security licences received usual full opening allocation
* Floodplain harvesting licence holders have received full opening allocations
* Supplementary access license holders have received full allocations in the Gwydir
NSWIC latest media release states that "IPART has added to the cost squeeze on NSW farmers with its final determination today to
increase rural water bills by up to 8.3% in most valleys for 2025-26."
"NSW Irrigators’ Council CEO Claire Miller said it was disappointing that IPART had shifted from the affordable 1.9% plus CPI price rise proposed in its information paper last month."
“The determination underlines the need for the NSW Government to urgently reform the flawed pricing model and corporate structure driving unaffordable hikes in rural water bills over the last 10 years.”
IPART has decided to issue a 1-year determination commencing on 1 July 2025 and ending 30 June 2026, or when replaced
From 1 July, prices will increase by 5.8% plus inflation of 2.4% for bulk water customers. MDBA charges will increase by 0.6% plus
inflation of 2.4% and BRC charges will increase by 1.1% plus inflation of 2.4%. All other prices will increase by inflation only.
At this stage, the Tribunal is not convinced that all the increased costs proposed by WaterNSW are sufficiently justified as necessary or
efficient, or that they should all be passed on the customers. The short determination will allow more work to be done on the broader
challenges identified through this price review.
The GVIA requested a full performance review and analysis of the business structure.
The AgriEmpower Scholarship Program is an investment in the future of our next generation of changemarkers,
dedicated to helping young people enhance their capabilities and unlock new opportunities for growth.
The program offers financial support, resources, and access to National Farmers’ Federation and Woolworths networks, and a community of
like-minded individuals, all with the goal of driving long-term success in the agriculture sector.
As part of the $400,000 program, 20 scholarships of $20,000 each will be awarded.
The AgriEmpower Scholarship Program runs for 18 months allowing individuals an opportunity to deep dive into developing themselves and with
the support of NFF & Woolworths.
The link is to the submission by the GVIA to the NSW Parliament’s Legislative Assembly Committee on Investment, Industry and Regional
Development
To the inquiry into the Impacts of the Water Amendment Act 2023 on NSW regional communities.
Within the GVIA submission we raise issues associated with
* Government Performance
* Impacts of Rules-based changes
* The Risk Assignment Framework
* Floodplain Harvesting regulations and
Other Water related matters such as
* Over-recovered water
* Water Resources Plans
* Wetlands
* NRAR and
* the NRC.
This month's NSW-DQ webinar focused on "Are You Measurement Ready". A recording is available
here
and responses to questions taken on notice will be available
here in the next fortnight.
Some key take aways:
All water users should check their licence and approvals to ensure the details are correct, and ensure they are following
their conditions.
Water users subject to the mandatory metering condition but eligible for exemption should use the online metering guidance
tool and take a record of what exemption they believe they can claim.
Metering requirements apply to Unregulated users as well as Regulated.
To take FPH entitlement in the Gwydir you must have Primary storage meters installed and validated by a DQP on all the storages in your
works approval.
Users looking to find out the storage levels on the DAS before starting an FPH event, and then at the end of an FPH event may find this video useful.
The primary storage meters record on approximately 15 minute intervals, but only upload onto the DAS once a day, so ensure you monitor your FPH take using a secondary storage meter or gauge boards.
To log onto the DAS you will need a username and password.
You should have received an email with this information on it. To find this email search WaterNSW+DAS, it may have landed in the junk
folder.
As we have seen rain in the recent week, it is possible that there may be opportunity for FPH where you have all the storages in your
works approval fitted with a primary storage meter certified by your DQP.
Entitlement holders with a point of intake meter completed and approved by your DQP will also be able to access FPH entitlement.
This is the link to the WaterNSW
Gwydir FPH fact sheet.
This is the link to the department
Gwydir FPH and licensing
page.
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.
Following the review of the Non-Urban metering framework there are some changes that are of importance for smaller users.
A summary of the changes to the rules around non-urban metering are available
here.
There is also information to step you through how to ensure you are compliant.
Some points to note:
* Smaller water users across NSW with works nominated by total entitlements of >15 ML and <100 ML, (unless otherwise exempt) have
until 1 December 2027 to comply or by the work approval renewal, whichever is later.
* Water users with entitlements of 15 ML or less are not required to install a meter unless trading water allocations. However, recording
and reporting water usage remains mandatory.
The government have updated the metering guidance tool, so you can check if you need a meter
or telemetry.
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.
The GVIA have completed a thrid submission on the update Gwydir unregulated WSP in this submission we make the following
recommendations.
1. We request that any wetland identification not be included as a component of any Water Sharing Plan (WSP) regulated or unregulated now
or at any time into the future as it adds no benefit to the public given that any changes to water access in WSP is already accounted for.
2. We request clarity on the financial, legal and production implications of gazetting wetland sites as members have major concerns as to
how rules may be interpreted or adjusted in the future.
3. Although we do not support the creation of wetlands on private land, we request that the Department consult with all landholders directly
and that ground truthing of any wetland include all sites gazetted in all earlier versions of the Gwydir Unregulated and Regulated Water
Sharing Plans.
4. Although we do not support the creation of wetlands on private land, if the Department wishes to identify any new wetlands as a
standalone process, unrelated to any Water Sharing Plan, the process must include individual consultation will all landholders likely to be
impacted by the identification of a wetland, this includes all neighbouring landholders.
5. We request that following ground truthing and consultation with landholders, to confirm the existence of a wetland, if the Department
continues to include them unnecessarily in Water Sharing Plans, then they should be included as a detailed list as in Schedule 4 and
Schedule 5 of the Water Sharing Plan for the Gwydir Unregulated River Water Sources 2012 and be supported by the interactive map. We cannot
accept a map alone as we have no confidence it will be tamper proof.
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.
Key topics of Interest
- Presentation of successes of Basin Plan to Legal-wise water symposium
- National Water Agreement NSW Workshops
- NSW telemetry review
- Inquiry to Water amendment bill 2023 impacts on regional communities
- NSW minimum inflow project
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.”
