Labor’s Murray-Darling Basin water buyback plan would trigger wave of job losses, farmers warn

The Darling River at Louth, north-west NSW. Federal water minister Tanya Plibersek has tabled a bill that extends the timeframe for completing the government’s Murray-Darling Basin plan by three years and allows buybacks to resume. Photograph: Mike Bowers/The Guardian

Farming groups are warning of a wave of job losses in rural Australia if the federal government proceeds with its plan to buy back more water in the Murray-Darling Basin, setting the scene for a repeat of earlier conflicts over water policy.

When the original Murray-Darling Basin plan was agreed to in 2010, there were demonstrations in country towns, and copies of the plan were burned in the streets of Deniliquin, New South Wales.