Irrigator wars: Anna Bligh's 'drought tax' ...

Excerpt from ABC News:

Water bought, but not delivered: irrigators

13 November 2007

They are often painted as voracious water consumers, but drought-hit irrigators in Queensland and northern New South Wales are now paying big bucks for access to a dwindling resource.

Many irrigators across the Murray-Darling Basin are now paying for water that is not even being delivered.

At the top end of the Basin, cotton farmers around St George in south-west Queensland say they have been charged tens of thousands of dollars for water they say does not exist.

But Queensland Premier Anna Bligh argues the charges are vital for the maintenance and management of water infrastructure.

Ms Bligh insists irrigators are merely paying the proper price for a resource she describes as "liquid gold".

For the past two-and-a-half years, the St George fields have given up nothing but dust and despair.

The unrelenting grip of drought has squeezed the south-west Queensland district of St George harder than just about any other part of the country.

For cotton growers like Scott Armstrong, it has left once productive fields to bake under cloudless skies.

"Right now, normally, would be about peak production time," he said.

"There'd be crops growing in every field around us that you see. There'd be pumps running, there'd be water flowing through the channels.

"It's just an absolute hive of activity and a hive of production and what we see now is basically just dust."

Massive bills

But if the drought is not hurting enough, Mr Armstrong and his fellow irrigators say they have been hit with massive bills for water they say they have not received.

"On our little farm in the last 18 months, I've paid over $168,000 for water that doesn't exist," he said.

But Ms Bligh says these are large businesses and they have very large commercial costs.

"So I think to a lot of people that sounds like a lot of money, but it is part of running a very large business," she said.

Mr Armstrong says his business has not run for two years because of the drought.

For a start, he is only receiving 5 per cent of his water allocation.

The problem is, he is still being hit with 95 per cent of his normal water bill.

The bills are being levied by Sun Water, a Queensland Government-owned corporation.

They are split into two parts - part A is for the management and maintenance of water infrastructure; part B is charged on the actual volume of water used.

It is the part A component that has one prominent St George local, Nationals Senator Barnaby Joyce, hopping mad.

"This is theft. I mean, what else is it?" he said.

"Is there another term when someone who's in a position of power over you, extracts a payment out of you knowing full well they can't deliver?

"People, they notice the fact. They say, look, these fellows were willing to send us to jail for querying the council amalgamation decision. They've got form in being absolute bastards".

But Ms Bligh says people can remind themselves that Barnaby Joyce is a member of the Government that introduced this policy.

"This policy of charging the real cost of water was introduced by the Howard Government of which Mr Joyce is a member," she said.

"It seems to me just a little coincidental that he's suddenly got upset about this policy in the middle of a federal election campaign.

"Where was Barnaby Joyce when his Government introduced this policy?"

'Drought tax'

The Queensland Premier says the charges paid by irrigators are needed to maintain and manage infrastructure such as pipelines, channels and dams.

But in St George there is anger at what many are calling a drought tax.

"$170,000, $180,000 a month coming out of this town ... and $170,000, $180,000 a month coming out of any block in Brisbane would create an absolute riot," Senator Joyce said.

"It can't go on. Ultimately what happens is houses start to close and be sold off."

Rohan McDougall runs a tyre and automotive parts business in St George.

He says the Government's water charges are trickling down from the irrigators to his business.

"I say we're seeing a lot of people being laid off around the place," he said.

"We're seeing hundreds of vehicles driving out of town and we sell tyres and parts.

"For every 100 vehicles that's 400 tyres and 1,000 parts we're not going to sell."

Compromise rejected

Ms Bligh says St George irrigators signed up to the water pricing arrangements that are meeting with Government only last year and she maintains they rejected a compromise deal.

"There was a proposal put on the table in those negotiations that there should be reduced charges in times of drought and higher charges in times of plenty," she said.

"The irrigators resolved not to go down that path."

Fed up with paying for water they say they are not getting, irrigators around St George are banding together to fight the State Government.

Cotton grower James Thomas says he has bills for $35,000.

"In one account I've used 100 megs and I got charged $14,000 out of that one account bill," he said.

Fellow grower Glennr Rogan says most local farmers are scratching towards the limit of their credit.

"I believe that we're the only people that have got to maintain the infrastructure ... for the State, that's owned by the Government," he said.

Mr Armstrong says as a group they have decided enough's enough.

"We're going to make a stand and say, 'look, we just cannot continue'," he said.

Taking a stand

That stand is to refuse to pay their water bills.

"We've got no alternative. We have to, as a group, withhold payment of this account because it is extortion," he said.

"It is Government-sponsored extortion of the farmers in the worst drought ever recorded."

But Ms Bligh is urging irrigators to talk rather than act.

"If all of the irrigators came together and wanted to reconsider that issue, then of course, we'd look at it - we're not unreasonable people," she said.

"But of course it would have to be through an agreement with all of the irrigators and an agreement facilitated again by the Queensland Farmers Federation."

As he checks pumps that have been idle for two years, Mr Armstrong may have no choice but to default on his latest water bill.

"I've got another account, right now, for $32,000. I have no idea how to pay that," he said.

'Kick in the guts'

It has been several years since the harvesters have hauled up a decent crop around St George.

With the window for planting closing fast, few irrigators have the stomach to risk another failed crop, especially given the state of the nearby Beardmore dam.

This dam is fed from a catchment the size of Victoria and for the past 40 years it sustained the cotton industry around St George.

But for the last couple of years it has been at less than 4 per cent full, meaning no cotton crops around here at all.

"I understood we lived in a community where governments used to help you when you're down," Mr Armstrong said.

"They'd pick you up when you're doing it tough, and they'd give you a hand until you can get back on your feet, until the river fills again, until these channels and these fields start producing again.

"I understood we lived in a community where you got help from the Government through the tough times.

"We are not seeing it from the State Government, and if anything, we're seeing the worst, we're getting a kick in the guts.

"It's a kick in the guts when we're down, and that's what makes us mad."

See - Irrigators 'drought tax'.