terryc wrote:
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.


A major part of the problem is that water was administered by the States
separately and historically they have over-allocated it, that is the
allocations are so large that it is only in flood years that irrigators get
100%. This has been exacerbated in the last decade which has been very dry
compared to the base periods when the optimistic allocations were made.

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.

That may have been true in the middle 20th century, however most of it is
now exported, production is quite seasonal but in good years we are big
exporters of rice. Also on the scale of dollars earned per meglitre of
irrigation water consumed rice is very low. Not to mention that the excess
water that percollates away from rice fields in the MIA contributes to
raising the water table and hence salinity problems.


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


But it will not be so for very long.

David