There are a few comments about the cost to govt of providing the Murray Darling Basin with more environmental water. More specifically that farmers are being "over-compensated".
1, Farmers who choose to sell do so at market price. They wear the devaluation of their redundant on-farm infrastructure at no cost to govt. As do other farmers who don't sell entitlement yet find their development devalued because other farms sold with little or no water have lost value, leading to equity pressures with lenders. Uncompensated.
2, Irrigation in the MDB generates in excess of $5billion of produce a year, making me think that the tax govt receives from MDB irrigation activities is in excess of the $1billion a year govt intends using to strangle irrigation in the Basin. Ironic that farmers in the basin effectively could be paying for their own dismantling and "compensation".
3, the govt, in the form of the Commonwealth Environmental Water Holder, will actually hold an investment at the end of it all. An investment in water entitlements that will increase over time, moreso with a lower trading base of available entitlement.
Net cost to non-MDBA resident taxpayer - slight.
