0tterbot wrote:
any
irrigators who are growing (for example) wine grapes for export probably
should just shut up right now.

I think you will find that that is a major part of the water problem in
NSW. The allocated water was not being fully utilised in NSW, so the NSW
government sold it as high security water(first call) to people taking
advantage of the exceptional tax lurks given by the government during
the howard years(?) to the wine industry, which is basically all export
industry.

Rice at least is a staple food crop. also, All/most of the rice growing
areas were established by the government to provide food security.

We have a glut of cheap rice from overseas as global transport is cheap,
cheap, cheap, cheap.