RURAL business leaders have warned that regional communities would suffer if governments enforced the large cuts in water for irrigation that the Murray-Darling Basin Authority is expected to recommend today.
The chairman of listed corporate farmer PrimeAg, Peter Corish, said he was concerned that plans to return between 27 and 37 per cent of water, or up to 4000 gigalitres, to the environment could hurt communities.
Elders chief executive Malcolm Jackman said water buybacks were city vote winners that would devastate the bush. "Why don't they spend money on helping farmers be more efficient with water and increase production using less water?" he said.
Australian head of Olam International Richard Haire said the water cuts were a "tax on agriculture" but, unlike the mining tax, he said there was no attempt by the government to understand the impact on regional industry and towns.
Mr Haire, whose company owns Queensland Cotton and has about $250 million in infrastructure servicing irrigation industries in the basin, said reducing water for farming would slash productive capacity.
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