Mallee growers fighting SA Government on water allocations
Two of South Australia's biggest potato growers are fighting the State Government in court over changes to their water allocations.
They say a new water plan for the Murray Mallee region, east of Adelaide, will force them to cut back their production and workforces.
The SA Government has spent years preparing the new allocation arrangements, wanting to ensure sustainable levels of groundwater extraction.
Neighbouring businesses Parilla Premium Potatoes and Longtrail Farms at Parilla are upset with the changes.
Wade Dabinett from Longtrail Farms said his business could lose 20 per cent of its irrigation supply.
"We don't consider the plan to be fair given the amount of investment and the amount of development that we've gone through in our businesses to then all of a sudden, almost at the 11th hour, be reduced right back," he said.
"It's not about us wanting to extract as much water as we can.
"We want to do everything within the rules ... we've developed our business within the rules."
The two companies have gone to the Environment, Resources and Development Court to tackle the Government.
They hope to win a better water allocation and say cutting back their supply will lead to business losses.
Mr Dabinett said the companies were keen for more talks with the Government and not opposed in principle to protecting the aquifer.
"We need the groundwater to survive, our businesses need it," he said.
Plan will safeguard future needs, management board says
The Natural Resources Management Board, which prepared the new allocation arrangements, made a shift from estimated water needs to specific volumes for growers.
Board presiding member Sharon Starick said she believed the plan would help safeguard future needs.
"We're not only taking into account the science that sits behind the water allocation plan but ... have been listening to the concerns of people in the community and our irrigators in terms of the economic impacts," she said.
"The board has been talking with organisations like Potatoes SA to support producers to make some changes.
"There will be some people where they find that change can be difficult to deal with."
Liberal Riverland MP Tim Whetstone said millions of dollars of investment in the Mallee's potato industry was at risk under the water changes.
"There has been a lack of information, a lack of science and particularly a lack of transparency around how these decisions have been made," the Opposition MP said.
He said there was too little assistance available to growers to cope with reduced water allocations.
"The impact will not only be on productive water and what'll mean to the region, but it'll have impacts on employment, it'll also have impacts on South Australia being a food-producing state," he said.
