Tony Windsor on Sky News yesterday evening made claims that there were no provisions in the Water Act to compulsorily acquire water from irrigators.
… five governments and five oppositions have agreed to a process and compulsory acquisition isn’t any part of those agreements … if he [Barnaby Joyce] can find compulsory acquisition in the Act he should point it out.
It’s a strange claim for Mr Windsor given that I didn’t raise the spectre of compulsory acquisitions, Minister Burke did.
It was the Nationals four years that got section 255 of the Act included which states “Act does not authorise compulsory acquisition of water access rights”.
However, irrigators can have the value of their licenses reduced by the Water Act.
Section 77 of the Water Act 2007 is titled “Payments to water access entitlement holders”. It describes the payments that irrigators will receive if the Basin Plan results in “a reduction in the water allocations to be made in relation to the water access entitlement”, s 77(1)(c)(i).
These are known as the “risk assignment” provisions of the Act. These provisions outline how governments and irrigators are to share the cost of reductions in water entitlements.
At the election both the Labor party and the Coalition committed to bearing the full cost of any reductions, regardless of the arrangements in the Act. In contrast to Mr Windsor’s misinformed claims there is nothing in the Act which guarantees this outcome.
Labor’s election commitment is shaky given their record of waste and mismanagement. How can any irrigators be confident that the government will meet their commitment after another three years of Labor?