News

Water

Liberal Nationals back Victoria’s strong allocation system

16 April 2020

A push by irrigators in southern NSW to increase water allocations would rob Victorian farmers of water and should be flatly rejected.

Victoria has a strong, conservative system of water allocation that ensures we are putting away water for future years to provide Victorian irrigators high allocations, more often. This has allowed our system to deliver 100 per cent Murray high reliability allocations in 10 of the past 11 years.

The NSW allocation system maximises yield, meaning the system delivers more water, less often, making it more suited to opportunistic crops.

The NSW system has delivered 100 per cent NSW Murray General Security allocations in five of the last 11 years.

The Basin Plan has not changed how much water is allocated. NSW irrigators need to lobby the NSW Government to change their allocation system.

Comment attributable to Shadow Minister for Water Steph Ryan

Make no mistake, irrigators in northern Victoria face significant challenges, but our strong system of allocation is not one of them.

Where more water can be delivered to farmers on both sides of the river, it should be, but it must not come at the expense of Victorian irrigators.

Note: See my media release on returning more water to production in dry years here

Background

Historical Allocation Data 2000/2001 to 2018/19
Season	VIC Murray Water Right/High Reliability Water Share	NSW Murray General Security
2001/2002	200	86
2002/2003	129	11
2003/2004	100	45
2004/2005	100	42
2005/2006	144	56
2006/2007	95	0
2007/2008	43	0
2008/2009	35	9
2009/2010	100	22
2010/2011	100	100
2011/2012	100	100
2012/2013	100	100
2013/2014	100	100
2014/2015	100	61
2015/2016	100	19
2016/2017	100	100
2017/2018	100	46
2018/2019	100	0
2019/2020	66	0