The Australian Cotton Conference features a fascinating combination of agronomy, politics, farm machinery (with big tractors displayed in the trades hall) and fashion (including a runway show of the work of young designers).

Murray Darling Basin Authority (MDBA) chairperson Mike Taylor received the bulk of the questions, mainly from irrigators and their representatives, in the Conference’s first session yesterday.

In addition to defending the MDBA’s delay in releasing the Basin Plan, due to the caretaker conventions in play for the federal election, Mr Taylor repeatedly stressed the process the MDBA adopted in developing the Plan is prescribed by legislation, the Water Act 2007, which was twice passed by the Commonwealth Parliament.  In determining sustainable diversion limits (of water for communities in the Basin), regard first has to be given to the needs of the environment.

Clearly this means there would have to be significant reductions in water availability in some regions, with consequent flow on economic and social impacts to regional communities.  Mr Taylor observed that the MDBA would present the incoming Commonwealth Government with an Incoming Government Brief containing some strong messages about the likely socio-economic impacts of the Basin Plan.

Andrew Gregson from the NSW Irrigators Council asked Mr Taylor whether the Basin Plan, which has to give prime consideration to the environment, is consistent with the 2004 National Water Initiative agreed by the Council of Australian Governments (COAG), which gives equal standing to economic, social and environmental criteria.  In responding to Mr Gregson, Mr Taylor again noted the prescriptive nature of the Water Act, which, owing to its status as legislation, overrides any agreement reached by COAG.

Mr Gregson is a very effective speaker and no doubt will feature prominently in any campaign by irrigators against the Basin Plan.  In a later session yesterday, Mr Gregson forecast that it was very unlikely irrigators would be able to live with the Basin Plan developed under the current process, given the primacy of the environment in the Plan’s development.  He told irrigators the messages they need to hammer home to the public include: “Everyone loses, not just farmers” and “Family farms will be forced to close” – farms which have been owned and operated by the same families for generations.