-. SUBMISSION Inquiry into the Water Amendment (Purchase Limit Repeal) Bill 2019 REARDON OPERATIONS Pagel/4 27 February 2019 ,. ' Reardon Operations Attn: Senate Environment and Communicat ions Committee PO Box 6100 Parliament House Canberra ACT 2600 Water Amendment (Purchase Limit Repeal} Bill - 2019 Submission. Please find enclosed a submission from Reardon Operations regarding my concerns related to The Inquiry into the Water Amendment (Purchase Limit Repeal) Bill 2019. Regards, Robert Reardon Director Reardon Operations Page2/4 27 February 2019 Introduction Reardon Operations Pty Ltd have been irrigating on Border Rivers system since 1990. We were all given plenty of encouragement by Queensland Government to develop an irrigation industry in this location that would utilize the Queensland water resources and the good fertile land on the Weir river floodplain. Our business today employs 24 families as well as another 16 permanent employees. These people are all accommodated on farm. In 1990 these properties only employed about 4 people. Our business also employs the services of a large number of local support services which are instrumental in keeping the surrounding communities viable. Page3/4 27 February 2019 Areas of Concern with the Water Amendment Bill 2019 • The lSOOGI Cap has been put in place to provide communities with certainty that the government will not buy back extra water and destroy their lively hoods. This should be adhered to as further recovery will be detrimental. • There is still capacity available (EST 200GI +) remaining under the current cap which can be used for targeted water recovery where required. • Water recovery in the form of buy backs results in a huge amount of stranded infrastructure left behind which is no longer productive and no longer of benefit to the economy of these already struggling regions. • As shown in MDBA socio economic research the impacts of decreased water access or "buy backs" are extremely devastating to local communities and support services resulting in school numbers decreasing, medical services decreasing, support service businesses closing down and the viability of entire communities being put into jeopardy. • Even this proposed bill has created uncertainty in the industry which will have an impact on our community as the producers of the area will have no confidence to re­ invest money into their businesses until they have some certainty. This will then filter down to less money getting spent in the support businesses of the town. • We are 100% opposed to any more water buybacks in the Border Rivers region as there are too many small communities that rely on the irrigation farms in their regions for their lively hoods. Towns such as Mungindi, Thallon, St George, Boomi, Talwood, Bungunya, Toobeah, Goondiwindi, Boggabilla, Toomelah, Yelarbon, Texas, lnglewood, Tenterfield, Stanthorpe, and lnverell have already been affected to some degree by earlier buybacks and will be severely affected if any further buy backs occur. Please carefully consider this submission as our communities can't sustain any further setbacks. Regards Robert Reardon Page4/4 27 February 2019 .