Coastal water rights cut for drought-affected farmers one year after they were tripled

Farmers say they have been blindsided by a decision to remove water rights from landholders on the NSW coast.

The state government has reversed a decision by the former coalition government and will return the harvestable rights limit in coastal-draining catchments to 10 per cent — a decrease from the previous 30 per cent limit introduced in May 2022.

Harvestable rights allow landholders to capture and store a proportion of the rainfall runoff in dams on the farm.

Water Minister Rose Jackson said the previous policy was not backed up by science.

“It was not based on expert advice, it was not ecologically sound, and it was putting at risk some of our really vulnerable water sources along the coast,” she said.

“We’re now going to do the work to assess what the catchment-by-catchment assessment level should be, so that we can make sure, as we enter into drying conditions, we’re not putting more stress on our water sources.”

How many farmers will this affect?

According to Ms Jackson, 11 farmers had notified the government of plans to build additional dams but not many had started.

“The number that had actually had the work undertaken was close to five or six statewide,” she said.

“We will be working with them to ensure that they’re not out of pocket.

“Either compensation is paid or they’re able to continue with some flexible arrangement, because it’s such a small number.”

Farmers say policy ‘damaging’

Farmers in coastal areas of NSW had been calling for increase to the 10 per cent limit since it was set in 1999.

They argued the average rainfall on the coast was around three to four times the annual rainfall in inland areas and a bigger allowance would help them prepare for drought.

Phil Ryan milks 175 cows on his dairy farm in the Bega Valley, which he said was already facing drought-like conditions.  

“It’s a kick in the guts. It’s not good policy, it doesn’t make sense,” he said.

“It will be very damaging to rural and regional communities along the coast of New South Wales, and the security of our food supply.”

“One of the main reasons that very few of these dams have actually been built or increased at this point, [is] because we were looking for further improvements to that policy that would include third order streams.”

Harvestable right dams can be constructed only on minor streams, called first and second-order.

The NSW Department of Planning and Environment said it would consider the needs of Aboriginal communities, businesses and the environment to make sure water was shared equitably.

Irrigators ‘blindsided’

NSW Irrigators Council CEO Claire Miller said it was a very disappointing decision.

“We were told the previous policy to allow 30 per cent harvestable rights would have had a negligible, if any, impact on river flows,” she said.

“But the government has blindsided farmers without even waiting for its own catchment-by-catchment modelling to be completed, which would have allowed them to make an informed decision on this.”

Rose Jackson said she had raised her concerns about the policy with farming and irrigator groups.

“I let them know about the change, I understand they are not going to be happy, but I need to make decisions in the best interests of the state,” she said.

Environment group relieved

The acting CEO of the Nature Conservation Council of NSW (NCC), Brad Smith, welcomed the announcement, describing coastal wetlands as the “crown jewels of New South Wales”.

“That’s where a lot of us go for holidays and they’re also very important for wildlife and support amazing biodiversity,” he said.

“It was just four years ago back in 2019 [during the last drought] that some of our coastal streams were starting to dry out, saltwater was creeping up and was causing real problems for those ecosystems.”

He said wetlands on the north coast were showing signs of drying up again and water birds were leaving.

Mr Smith also said the decision to increase the amount of water landholders could take had benefited big businesses like blueberry growers, but it has been damaging for small businesses like oyster growers and fishers, who relied on fresh water flows to the sea to trigger breeding events and fish migrations.

He argued it was wise to make the change now before too many people invested in the infrastructure to capture the water. 

“Once the water is over allocated, it’s very hard to get it back to sustainable levels,” he said.