Prime Minister Julia Gillard has promised to accelerate the buyback of irrigation licences in the Murray Darling Basin, with one out of every seven litres of irrigation water in the Basin to be returned to the environment by 2014.
In an announcement this morning, Ms Gillard claimed the policy would make "our rivers sustainable and ... provide certainty for farmers".
Since the Government started buy backs in February 2008, it has bought back one out of every 20 litres of the Murray Darling Basin’s irrigation water and returned it to the rivers - approximately 900 billion litres worth of entitlements.
But by the time the Murray Darling Basin Plan comes into effect in 2014, Ms Gillard said a re-elected Labor Government would have returned one out of every seven litres of irrigation water to the rivers, through a combination of buy backs and more efficient irrigation.
"We anticipate that by the time the plan comes into effect, Federal Labor’s buy backs and infrastructure investment will have already delivered much of what the rivers will require to be sustainable," she said in a statement this morning.
"If re-elected, we will bridge any remaining gap between what has been returned and what is required to be returned by the independent Murray Darling Basin Authority."
A Labor Government would do this by continuing to buy back water each year beyond 2014, until all the water the Authority determines the system needs in the final Basin plan next year has been returned.
Labor said any buy backs would be subject to the availability of water for purchase from willing sellers.
"Now farmers can move forward with confidence knowing they will have options to sell their entitlements when the Basin Plan comes into force," Ms Gillard's statement said.
National Farmers Federation president David Crombie welcomed the announcement but said the government should first work towards minimising the gap between the new and old cap.
"We maintain that a simplistic cut to irrigated water without accounting for existing environmental water and engineering solutions would unfairly slug farmers and, as a consequence, reduce Australia’s food production in the Basin, which produces 40 per cent of Australia’s food," Mr Crombie said.
He said this could be done through smart engineering to deliver upfront environmental water and by using all environmental water to offset the gap in future water extraction caps, and urged the government and MDBA to take these elements into account for the new Basin Plan.
The MDBA is required by law to prepare a long term plan for the Murray Darling Basin, which sets out Sustainable Diversion Limits - how much water can be taken from the rivers while maintaining their health, at the same time as balancing social and economic impacts.
The Authority has been under fire for delaying the release of its Guide to the Basin Plan until after the election.
It will release a Draft Plan by the end of the year, before finalising it next year.
But until the plan comes into effect, a Labor Government would continue to roll out $4.4 billion in new, efficient irrigation systems under the Sustainable Rural Water Use and Infrastructure Program.
"This is upgrading leaky, old infrastructure in the Basin, so farmers can keep growing food with less water," Ms Gillard's statement said.
"And we will continue to buy back water, under our $3.1 billion Restoring the Balance in the Murray Darling Basin plan, with new tenders to commence following the release of the consultation Guide to the Murray Darling Basin Plan."
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