Brumby delivers $115m drought aid

WeeklyTimes, 13 Oct. 2008 - full article

THE Victorian Government has pledged an extra $115 million in drought relief for the state's farmers as high weekend temperatures further diminished hopes for a good season.

Premier John Brumby said Cabinet had brought forward a package that would deliver immediate relief for farmers.

The major components of the package are $58 million for water rate rebates for irrigators and $15 million for 50 per cent subsidies on municipal rates.

It also includes $10 million for the Government's drought employment program, which employs people directly impacted by drought in projects that aim to protect environmental assets.

"Cabinet today decided to bring forward the Victorian Government's drought relief package, given the urgent need for assistance for Victorian farmers in the grip Australia's longest and hottest drought on record," Mr Brumby said.

"Today's package takes action to provide immediate drought relief to farmers, their families and the communities in which they live."

A further $10 million from the Small Towns Development Fund will be spent on infrastructure and boosting local jobs in drought-affected communities, while a further $2.9 million will be spent on boosting drought mental health services and support.

Exit packages add up to $4000/ML for water

Alison Barber, 24 Sep. 2008 - full article

A new benchmark environmental water payment of effectively $4000 a megalitre offered to small irrigators this week may herald a long-overdue breakthrough in the Federal Government’s beleagured campaign to buy substantial volumes of water.

For the first time since launching its widely-criticised $3.1 billion buyback, the Government has offered a combined package which addresses calls for some form of structural adjustment by incorporating an additional payment over and above the market price of water, in this case a $150,000 irrigation exit grant.

Federal Water Minister Penny Wong announced on Saturday that eligible irrigators on less than 15 hectares who sold their water into the environmental buyback and got out of irrigation would be paid the grant.

Industry sources say as most of those likely to qualify have holdings of around 100 megalitres, the $150,000, taken on top of a market price of $2500/ML would equate to around $4000/ML.

The package is expected to secure 48,000ML of water, but with SA allocations on 11pc this year and some water already used or sold, is unlikely to provide any substantial relief to the lower lakes in the short term.

Irrigator groups said although the grants were still a scattergun approach, ill-defined and only available to small irrigators - primarily Riverland and Sunraysia grapegrowers and some stone fruit growers - the willingness to combine different programmes with complementary aims to add up to a market premium price was “a step in the right direction”.

Victorian irrigators immediately said if the Federal Government offered a similar price to larger irrigators, many would be prepared to hand over water and go back to the table to discuss relaxing the four per cent annual trade limit which currently stands in the way of large scale Commonwealth purchases of Victorian water.

Victorian Farmers Federation water spokesman Richard Anderson said a mix of buyback plus on farm infrastructure investment which added up to $4000/ML would allow farmers to lift water use efficiency and maintain or boost productivity using less water.

“Market price alone is not enough,” he said. “There is no reason why they couldn’t combine the $5.8bn infrastructure money with the $3.1bn buyback.

“If they offered $4000/ML I’d be quite happy to hand over 50ML and spend the money on farm. I could put in a totally automated system to match the automated food bowl system. Those systems are there, but they are out of reach of the average bloke.

“I would stay in irrigation, my productivity doesn’t drop, the local factory doesn’t have to close, the local businesses stay open because I am still buying and the towns don’t need structural adjustment.”

Basin wide water storage remains critically low

Media Release, Thursday, 7 August 2008 by the Murray Darling Basin Commission

Water held in public storages across the Murray-Darling Basin is estimated to be at only 21 per cent of total capacity. Water in private storages is also at low levels.

That’s the main finding of a Basin wide preliminary collection of public and private storage carried out by the Murray-Darling Basin Commission over the past week.

Acting Chief Executive Mr Les Roberts said figures supplied by all basin partner governments estimated that, at the end of July, total public active storage held was about 4800 GL. The capacity is 22,609 GL. (Active storage is water which can be released using only gravity).

“Most of this water is already earmarked for critical human needs and a small amount is held as carry over or announced allocations,” Mr Roberts said.

Carry over water is already “owned” by users who chose to carry over part of the water available to them last year for use this year.

“The amount of water currently available for use as a carry over or already allocated is about 1400 GL or only 6 per cent of capacity.

“Some areas of the Basin are still in deficit meaning they do not have enough water to cover the delivery of even water for critical human, stock and domestic needs and will be relying on further inflows to their dams to make up the shortfall,” Mr Roberts said.

“Estimates from partner governments show that private storages in the north of the Basin are estimated to be holding about 810 GL - which is less than estimates being reported in the media. In the southern Basin, private storage is spread across many smaller farm dams.”

Mr Roberts said the MDBC had also released a fact sheet today showing the water needs at the Lower Lakes.

“Given the current level of storage it’s not feasible to refill the lakes by transferring water from other parts of the Basin without any further significant rain.

“As little as 20 per cent of any water released in the north of the Basin would reach the Lower Lakes in South Australia, meaning that four or five times the water needed at the lakes would need to be released from that far upstream.

“Management of many issues in the Basin are now heavily reliant on inflows over late winter and spring and governments will need to maintain flexibility to manage the situation based on real time information,” Mr Roberts said.

A copy of the fact sheet on Lower Lakes is available at www.mdbc.gov.au

Murray-Darling Basin drought is getting worse

Media Release, Thursday, 10 July 2008 by the Murray Darling Basin Commission

The drought in the Murray-Darling Basin is getting worse with June inflows the lowest on record and autumn inflows only just above the record lows of 2007.

That’s the grim news in the Murray-Darling Basin Commission’s (MDBC) latest Drought Update released today.

Chief Executive Dr Wendy Craik AM said inflows in June were 95 GL, lower than the previous record low of 106 GL June 2006. In June 2007 inflows were 220 GL. The long term average is 680 GL. Inflows during autumn this year were 200 GL, just above the lowest on record of 195 GL in autumn 2007. The long term average is 806 GL.

“This is very disappointing and the likelihood of upper Murray inflows being above average for the remainder of winter and spring is very low,” Dr Craik said. “And until there is significant rain and run-off, the prospects for irrigation and the environment in 2008-09 remain grim.

“2008-09 is shaping up to be a very tough year for water availability and there is likely to be continuing pressure on the riverine environment. The new water year is also likely to pose operational challenges with low river flows and varying weir pool levels.

“The most recent seasonal climate outlook issued by the Bureau of Meteorology shows a shift in the odds towards drier than average conditions in across the Murray-Darling Basin from July to September, including the high yielding catchments of the upper Murray and its tributaries.”

For the year ending June 2008, total inflows to the Murray River System - excluding Darling inflows and Snowy Scheme releases - was 2,220 GL which was the 6th lowest in 117 years of records and only 25 % of the long term average of 8,900 GL.

“Critical water for human needs (including stock and domestic) for 2008-09 is reasonably assured for those who draw their water from the main stem of the Murray. However, we need inflows that are higher than the minimum used for planning to assure water is available to those who take water from anabranches or major channel systems.”

Dr Craik said headwater storage levels were slightly higher than the record low levels of this time last year (due to higher levels of carryover) but were still well below average.

“The water level in the Lower Lakes has temporarily stabilised, but unless there is a significant improvement in water availability for South Australia, the outlook for the next 12 months is extremely poor.

“Pumping water from Lake Alexandrina which began in early May, is maintaining Lake Albert at its current level and preventing further exposure of sulphidic sediments. However, we are also looking at further management options for the Lower Lakes for the 2008-09 season and beyond,” Dr Craik said.

Dr Craik said the MDBC’s river operations would continue to maximise water availability by reducing evaporation and transmission losses along the river system.

A copy of the latest Drought Update is available at www.mdbc.gov.au