Australia’s food affordability, food security and regional prosperity have rarely felt more precarious – or more neglected.

The Labor Government’s latest decision to buy back another 130 gigalitres from Southern Basin irrigators proves yet again that rural communities and national food production rank well below political optics and environmental vote-harvesting on the government’s priority list.

Water Minister Murray Watt’s surprise announcement in Adelaide was no coincidence. It was a political staging designed to reassure one state while imposing economic and social costs on others. A government acting in the national interest would have waited for the 2026 Basin Plan Review before making major actions with regards to water policy.

Instead, the government has pre-empted it – and in doing so has weakened Australia’s food system at a time when global supply chains, energy costs and inflationary pressure already threaten household budgets.

Reduced irrigation water means reduced secure food output, fewer regional jobs, diminished processing, and an inevitable shift to greater food imports. And imported food doesn’t come free: it brings higher carbon emissions from transport and refrigeration, price volatility from global markets, and increased insecurity in national food supply.

Somehow this sits alongside Labor’s Net Zero agenda – a contradiction so glaring it requires wilful political blindness to ignore.

Even environmental leaders recognise the need for smarter Basin management. Only days earlier, Victorian environmental water holder CEO Sarina Loo called for an end to the outdated “just add water” approach. Yet Canberra has doubled down.

Australia deserves water policy built on modern science, long-term national interest, and a genuine understanding of how regional communities sustain our food system. What we have instead is a government trading away food affordability and security for politics.

And unless this trajectory changes, every Australian will pay the price – at the checkout.

“Buying back 130 gigalitres now – without waiting for the Basin Plan Review – is reckless. It threatens Australia’s food supply, raises our carbon footprint and damages regional communities. This is not environmental policy. Its politics dressed up as science.”

David Farley