Chaffey MP Tim Whetstone, whose electorate covers the nation’s wine grape growing engine room in the Riverland, fears growers currently dealing with grim commodity prices could be most tempted to sell, threatening the long-term future of the industry.

“At the moment it’s been the double whammy for the wine grape growing industry of when we had the millennium drought, we saw depressed prices for wine grapes so a lot of growers sold their water entitlements and entered the temporary market,” he said, adding this meant there could be even less options when buybacks see the number of licences fall.

Then when critical China export markets peaking in 2020 disappeared in a trade dispute with Australia, Whetstone said growers saw grape prices plunge and the nation now faces a red wine glut with many growers forced to mothball or pull vines.

“My biggest concern is that this will now essentially prey on vulnerable wine grape growers particularly in the Riverland… where we have people almost at the end of their tether dealing with the volatility of the wine sector,” he said.

Whetstone raised his concerns after Federal Environment and Water Minister Tanya Plibersek announced this week that all basin states except Victoria have signed up to a new target date to return 450GL of environmental water under the Murray River Basin Plan from 2024 to December 31, 2027.

Plibersek also said that the federal government aims to introduce new laws in the $13 billion plan allowing it to start more voluntary water licence buybacks to reach the target.

Whetstone said while buybacks should be part of the plan, they must be carefully considered so they do not adversely impact River Murray horticulture industries where more growers are on the economic brink.

He wanted more emphasis on water efficiencies like new laws or regulatory requirements for states like New South Wales and Victoria to fix open River Murray water delivery channels to prevent huge water losses in evaporation and seepage.

“This water should also be metered at the point of water extraction rather than at the farmgate”, he said, so water losses are fairly accounted for in entitlements.

Concerns were also raised about smaller wine grape growers being pushed out of the industry with the new voluntary buybacks as the number of multinationals and superannuation companies increasingly control both farms and supermarkets.

Whetstone, who has previously been director of the Renmark Irrigation Trust and chair of the South Australia Murray Irrigators, said when the next drought hits multinationals will have far deeper pockets to buy water entitlements to continue irrigating crops.

If there is a drought, “I’m seeing a tsunami coming the wine grape growers way,” Whetstone said.

Yesterday in Adelaide, Plibersek said more money would be “on the table” for voluntary buybacks but also for community’s affected by those buybacks and for the completion of water efficiency programs.

She declined to give a dollar figure but said part of the new plan for the Murray Darling Basin was to push back the deadline for water savings and water efficiencies to 2026.

“We know we need to give more time to some of the big water-saving projects to be delivered. So, more time for the plan,” she said.

“We’re offering more options. We don’t want to close off options for delivering the plan. We want to make sure that every practical option is considered, and that includes, for example, removing the cap on voluntary water buybacks.”

Legislation for voluntary buybacks will need to pass through the federal parliament.

“I understand that there are farmers across the Murray-Darling Basin who are watching this very closely,” Plibersek said.

“I can guarantee that any water purchased will be voluntary. We’re in the market for voluntary water purchases. We’re not going to be compulsorily acquiring water.

“We will minimise the social and economic impacts of any water buybacks. We’ll be looking for water purchases that have a minimal impact on communities.”