ADIC submission to the Draft Framework for Delivering the 450GL of Additional Environmental Water

Dairying in the Murray-Darling Basin underpins food security – it is the backbone and lifeblood of so many basin communities.

Twenty per cent of the nation’s total milk production comes from the Murray-Darling Basin region. This equates to 1.53 billion litres and includes 250 to 300 million litres of milk that, in the last year (FY23), has moved north from the region to support the dairy needs of other states.

It is home to 912 farms and 42 dairy processing facilities, creating almost 7000 jobs and generating about $2 billion of value to the region and local communities.

However, since the introduction of the Murray-Darling Basin Plan in 2012, dairy farm numbers in the region have fallen by 47 per cent and raw milk production has dropped 35 per cent.

The dairy sector is a critical employer in the Murray-Darling Basin and an integral contributor to the local economy.  The impact of ill-informed water recovery will be felt widely throughout the southern basin dairy regions and beyond.

Our submission to the Draft Framework for Delivering the 450GL of Additional Environmental Water, calls for:

• A second consultation on the Draft Framework to progress as a priority.
• Government to genuinely engage and consult with our sector in the implementation of the Act and associated Framework, embodying actual principles of co-design as proposed by the Framework.
  • This means listening to the recommendations of recent reviews, as well as Basin Plan dairy farmers and processors themselves, to ensure the Plan can be completed in a way that is fair and equitable.
  • This means extending the timeframes for completion of Basin Plan projects and upholding the social and economic test.
  • This must not be contingent on allowing water buybacks which will devastate regional communities, but ensuring all options for water recovery are considered.
• It also means establishing a Minister-led Agricultural advisory group from the outset, to genuinely guide on
  the implementation of the legislative changes to the MDBP and to minimise any negative consequences.

Read our submission.