FEATURE your water rights
In an arid climate like Western Australia, water is arguably the most important input for all primary producers. Broadacre producers need to plan their production around the vagaries of weather forecasts and rainfall. Horticulturalists are able to escape this uncertainty through access to secure water sources and the use of irrigation technologies.
Words Doug Hall, Industry Development, Policy and Advocacy Specialist
ENSURING the long-term security of horticultural water sources is essential if current production levels and quality of produce is to be maintained, ongoing investment encouraged, and for a viable industry into the future.
Unlike other production inputs, like fertiliser, irrigation technology and seed, which are sourced from commercial suppliers and influenced primarily by market forces, access to and extraction of water is largely under the oversight of government through an extensive legislation and regulatory framework. That is, water is subject to more political forces than all the other production inputs.
Under the existing WA legislation and regulations, industry has seen its historical water rights eroded; for example, the 10% reduction from 2028 under the Gnangara Groundwater Allocation Plan (2022) and the mooted 10% reduction in the recently released Gingin Groundwater and Surface Water Allocation Plan – 2024 Evaluation Statement.
Rather than industry being reactive, it is essential that a proactive approach is adopted. To that end, I have recently been engaged by vegetablesWA and the Western Australian Water Users’ Coalition (WAWUC) to help develop a proactive program of advocacy for your water rights.
I bring nearly 30 years of experience working with industry and industry peak bodies, including Fruit Growers Association, Irrigation Australia, Waste Management Association and Pastoralists & Graziers Association. Since 2006, I have been actively involved in water advocacy, including preparing industry submissions and representing peak bodies on government water stakeholder committees.
The work for vegetablesWA is focusing on the major vegetable producing regions in WA and complements the work for the WAWUC. The latter was established in 1998 to advocate for the interests of water license-holders and water users in Western Australia. The WAWUC has a membership and affiliated network that spans a wide cross-section of primary production businesses and industry peak bodies in WA, including agriculture, amenity, aquaculture and production horticulture. vegetablesWA is a WAWUC member.
In developing a proactive advocacy program, both WA and National water policy need to be addressed. At the national level, the WAWUC recently made a submission to the National Water Agreement consultation process; the WAWUC submission can be downloaded here — https:// tinyurl.com/preview/2aam3c56.
At WA level, the first step in developing a proactive advocacy program is an audit of Ground and Surface Water Allocation Plans relevant to members of vegetablesWA and WAWUC. The audit involves a desktop audit of plans and associated documents published on the DWER website (https://tinyurl.com/preview/2dmpr89s), as well as meeting with DWER allocation planning staff responsible for the northern, central and southern regions of WA.
One of the prime goals of the audit is to ascertain the future timeline for review and updating of each allocation plan.
This knowledge will help vegetablesWA and WAWUC optimise their preparation for each review process and advocacy to protect current water rights within each updated plan.
Other elements of the vegetablesWA work are reviewing water-related RD&E projects relevant to the WA vegetable industry, conducting meetings with growers and recommending future strategies and actions.
I look forward to providing you with future updates as the work progresses.
FOR MORE INFORMATION
For vegetablesWA work – doug.hall@ iinet.net.au
For Western Australian Water Users’ Coalition — wawateruserscoalition@outlook.com