Buybacks petition

Published on 03 September 2024

Murray River Council is urging residents to support a petition led by local member for Murray, Helen Dalton MP, which seeks to protect regional and remote communities from the potential impacts of Commonwealth Water Buybacks.

The petition, which needs 10,000 signatures, calls on the NSW Government to ensure that no water transfers occur without a detailed and transparent report into the expected impact of any Commonwealth buybacks, including the potential economic, social, cultural, and environmental consequences of water resources being diverted away from local communities.

The paper petition can be signed at any of council’s customer service centres over the next two weeks, just drop in and sign it at the counters. 

Murray River Council’s Acting CEO, Jack Bond is calling on residents to sign the petition so that rural voices get heard.

“Despite all our best efforts to provide facts and figures to our political leaders, the Federal Government is determined to hastily recover volumes of water, disregarding the consequences for rural communities, staple food production, and the environment.”

“Over the past ten-plus years our communities have done what the Government has asked. They have joined the conversations, and they have done the legwork to give the government options. But somehow, we’re still in the position where we’re set to lose a lot more than our farmers.”

“If the buy backs continue there will be very little irrigation and practically no communities left in the Southern Riverina.”

“I encourage our residents to sign the petition so that our voices can be heard in parliament.”