Caitlin Bell says water buybacks are not the way to restore our rivers. Photo: Oliver Jacques.
A 12-year-old Riverina girl’s impassioned video highlighting the negative impacts of water buybacks has gone viral on social media.
The Federal Government has ramped up efforts to purchase water licences from irrigators over the past three years, claiming some water currently used for agricultural production needs to instead be allowed to flow down the river to protect the environment.
Caitlin Bell, who lives on a cotton farm in the tiny town of Gogeldrie near Leeton, said this was causing huge damage to rural communities.
“Water buybacks don’t just take away water. They take away jobs, farms and entire communities. They take away our future,” she said.
“Economic studies show that buybacks push up water prices, cut farm production and cause major job losses.
“Schools get smaller, families start to move away and suddenly our town starts to disappear.”
She said the people in the city also felt the impact of what she called ‘bad government policy’.
“Water buybacks raise the cost of food production, which means you pay more for what you buy in the supermarket,” she said.
Caitlin and sister Evelin on her family farm. Photo: Supplied.
A video of Caitlin outlining the case against buybacks posted on her mum Jenna’s Facebook page has been viewed more than 6000 times.
Under the Murray-Darling Basin Plan – an agreement between State and Federal governments initiated in 2012 – 2100 gigalitres of water have been taken out of agricultural production and restored to the river for environmental purposes.
The Federal Government has argued that more water is needed because the condition of many rivers remains poor.
Caitlin said she wanted a healthy river system but argued adding more water didn’t necessarily solve the problems. She said the government should instead invest in weirs, fish passageways and measures that allowed for water to be used more efficiently.
She also wanted more community consultation.
“Ask us what we think at the start, not after you’ve decided everything,” she said.
The St Joseph’s Leeton Primary School student said her aim was for her video to be seen by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese.
“I want him and his government to know that buybacks are hurting farmers and country kids like me … you’re taking away my future,” she said.
Mum Jenna said she was extremely proud of her daughter and the initiative she’d taken.
“My husband and I are relatively new to the industry; we’ve found it’s getting harder to finance farming. Water is getting very expensive, so you’ll see a lot of farms around us that won’t be producing irrigated crops,” she said.
“We’ve lost the Whitton Public School, which merged with Murrumai, so have already seen the impact of previous buybacks.”
