NSW Farmers raised significant concerns around rural bulk water charges at the Independent Pricing and Regulatory Tribunal’s (IPART) public hearing in Sydney this week, focusing on its draft determination of prices that WaterNSW can charge water users in rural NSW.

Association president Derek Schoen said the water charges in the North Coast, South Coast and Peel Valleys were already unviable, and increased prices would “force more farmers out of the market”.

“Since 2009, Peel Valley water charges have gone up 250 per cent, with larger users paying close to $100,000 in water charges per annum,” Mr Schoen said.

“The sad truth is that in many regions we have surplus water in perfectly good farming country, yet we are seeing diminished farming activity due to a water market system that is failing whole regions.”

Meanwhile, Peel Valley irrigators say they’ve been denied the opportunity to apply for funding through the Sustaining The Basin Irrigated Farm Modernisation (STIBFM). Farmer Andrew Lynch said he went through the application process “in the assumption that the funding did not discriminate against the Peel Valley irrigators”.  “The DPI informed us, all be it some ways down the track, the state government has specifically excluded the Peel Valley irrigators from the STBIFM,” Mr Lynch said.

“This is the primary funding that would assist us in the creation of many local jobs and significant investment by us in the Tamworth region.”

The DPI website list Peel Valley farmers as eligible for Irrigated Farm Water Use Efficiency Assessment funding, but not infrastructure funding. “IFWUEA is available to us however this assessment rebate is only $2000 of a $5000 assessment and is only useful if a farmer is applying for the STBIFM,” Mr Lynch said.

However, a DPI spokesperson said in the first two rounds of the STBIFM program, 19 projects in the Peel were successful in attracting funding, resulting in an investment of $6.7 million into modernised irrigation infrastructure.

“Prior to each funding round, the recovery targets are reviewed in consultation with the Commonwealth and NSW Governments,” he said,

“Since round two of the program, further acquisition of entitlement in the Peel catchment has not been supported by the Commonwealth. Changes have also occurred in the Macquarie, Gwydir and Barwon-Darling catchments.”