Two recent misguided Senate actions by the Australian Greens are ringing alarm bells for Queensland agriculture. The Greens’ call for the Australian Government to split the agriculture and water portfolios and the motion to disallow the Implementation Agenda for the Murray-Darling Basin Plan are reckless and regressive.
The Queensland Farmers’ Federation (QFF) condemned the Greens’ willingness to play with the future prosperity of rural and regional Australia to simply further what appears to be an anti-agriculture agenda.
QFF President Stuart Armitage said that any moves to break apart the constructive and beneficial grouping of the federal agriculture and water portfolios should not be entertained.
“In Queensland farmers know all too well the bureaucratic inefficiencies that stem from a disjointed and cumbersome agricultural water system. Agriculture is responsible for the management and use of 60% of the state’s water yet it is regulated and managed across five non-agricultural departments and ministerial portfolios,” Mr. Armitage said.
“This arrangement creates a fragmented approach to the planning and management of agricultural water, and means that we do not get the right policy and regulatory outcomes needed to maximise this precious resource.”
“The current Queensland model should not be replicated, particularly at the federal level. The last thing Queensland farmers need is for further bureaucratic hurdles through inefficiencies coming out of Canberra.”
“Unfortunately, the Greens have failed to understand that pulling apart the logical and synergistic coupling of agriculture and water will do nothing to address their concerns around water allocations and use.”
“We are also concerned about the recent efforts to undo the Basin Plan Implementation Agenda. The MDBA’s Northern Basin Review clearly identified that amendments were needed and would not compromise environmental outcomes.”
“The Basin Plan has a strong history of bipartisan support, and we trust that at the federal level the Coalition and Labor will continue that tradition. That has certainly been the case in Queensland.”
“The Greens’ apparent anti-agriculture and anti-irrigation agenda will have damaging real-life consequences for communities, jobs and the production of world class food, fibre and foliage.”
QFF commend the Federal Government for its continued support in keeping agriculture and water under the same ministerial portfolio, and for accepting the Murray–Darling Basin Authority’s proposed changes to the Basin Plan, which included a reduction to the water recovery target in the north of the Basin from 390GL to 320GL to ensure already stressed, irrigation-dependent communities would not be decimated.