A billion-dollar injection in Victoria’s water sector appears imminent after federal Water Minister Tony Burke summoned key irrigator groups to a snap meeting in Canberra today.
This follows a week of intense anger in rural Australia over proposals to cut water extractions from the Murray-Darling river system.
Victorian groups will discuss with Mr Burke a long-standing Commonwealth pledge to spend $1 billion in northern Victoria to improve the state’s irrigation system.
The money, promised in 2008, was contingent on Victoria providing a business case that showed the improvements would save 200 billion litres of water.
The business case has been with the Commonwealth for several months, and sources in the state’s water sector are now expecting confirmation of the $1 billion within a week.
The funding would secure the second stage of the food bowl modernisation project, which is aimed at making more water available for the environment by reducing seepage and evaporation.
Victorian farmers, meanwhile, plan to establish a fighting fund to battle the controversial proposals by the Murray-Darling Basin Authority to slash the amount of irrigation water taken from rivers.
The Victorian Farmers Federation is seeking money from all farmers and hopes that country businesses will also contribute to the ”Fair Go Fund”. The lobby group will also go beyond its traditional constituency for support and appeal directly to Melburnians.
VFF president Andrew Broad said much of the fresh food consumed in Melbourne was produced using irrigation, effectively making city residents consumers of irrigation water.
”It’s in the milk we drink, it’s in the wine we drink, it’s in the fruit and the vegetables. And that’s predominantly really coming out of the Murray-Darling Basin,” he said.
Melburnians would face higher food prices if the water cuts went ahead, he said.
