Local councils whose communities have been hit by big job losses due to a Federal Government water buyback scheme fear the situation might get worse in key country towns unless the scheme is put on hold.
They have demanded Canberra change its approach to the scheme and questioned whether federal agencies are doing enough to ease the social and economic impacts of cutting water allocations in farming areas within the Murray-Darling Basin.
In a hard-hitting submission to the Murray-Darling Basin Authority, the LGAQ said that while the Federal and State governments had a plan to manage water resources better in the Basin, its implementation “is having dire consequences for several Queensland communities”.
“In practice, reducing the amount of water that can be extracted from the environment has eroded the productive capacity and economic activity in already stressed Queensland communities, especially because other supporting measures have not been well implemented,’’ the LGAQ submission said.
It said that since the federal water buyback scheme was introduced, the town of Dirranbandi had suffered a 15 percent loss of jobs while employment in St George had declined by seven percent.
The LGAQ urged the Authority to adopt measures to continually monitor the impact of its decisions on the social fabric of local communities.