Baldwin's Murray-Darling promise

Bob Baldwin, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Environment, was presented this week with the effects of the plan's implementation and community members' growing concerns while on a listening tour through southern Queensland.

Addressing a public meeting at Dirranbandi on Tuesday, Mr Baldwin said he disapproved of a "targeted solution" and would "ensure no one is unfairly affected" by the plan.

But Smart Rivers president Frank Deshon said Lower Balonne irrigators very much felt the "focus" of water-recovery efforts.

To date, 51 gigalitres of water has been recovered of the 100GL identified local reduction target for the Condamine-Balonne catchments.

Irrigators are frustrated not a single GL had been purchased upstream of Beardmore Dam, situated above St George, and believe the concentrated recovery is leading to the townships' demise.

Mr Deshon said the Dirranbandi district had already "lost" four farms to complete water-entitlement buybacks.

"Employers have left, machinery is not being serviced, machinery has sold, the earthworks and that haven't been completed, there are no trucks rolling out with cotton and those types of things," he said.

"There's no safety net for those guys in town - we charged ahead and bought that water back with no consideration for them.

"If they take another 50GL from here to the border, you'll fly over Dirranbandi in two years and there won't be a main street."

Federal Member for Maranoa Bruce Scott reiterated irrigators' concerns, saying the 30 per cent of their gross income lost by the majority of local businesses was directly attributable to water buybacks.

"The impact we're seeing in Dirranbandi is not drought," Mr Scott said.

"The impact of the discussion we're having today is the result of buybacks and farms that have consequently been shut down."

Mr Scott said an intergovernmental res­ponse was required to assist localised diversification and achieve water-recovery targets sustainably.

"Every gigalitre bought back in terms of entitlements reduces the capacity to generate income, which circulates through Dirranbandi and the Balonne," Mr Scott said.

"Once you buy water, you take the very asset out of the town that fundamentally generates the wealth that provides the economy of the shire.

"We need to be able to invest in the community to replace part of the lost community because of buyback in the area.

"It should be on all taxpayers of this nation. The burden shouldn't be worn by one community - otherwise they're carrying the cost of an entire nation's desire."

Despite repeated appeals from Mr Deshon and community members, Mr Baldwin failed to provide relief in the form of a strategy to address these socio-economic concerns.

Mr Baldwin said his action awaited the Northern Basin Review's completion at the end of this year, which would take into account what's already occurred, but he would be in better position after meeting with all of the Murray Darling Basin communities.

"I give you my undertaking that everything we do will be in a fair, transparent, open process, observing the triple bottom line," Mr Baldwin said.

During the visit Mr Baldwin was shown one of the irrigation properties 'lost' to water buybacks near Dirranbandi as part of his visit to Murray-Darling Basin communities.

The now dormant fields at Moorenbah, south-west of Dirranbandi, are in stark contrast to nearby properties picking cotton.

"As you can see, it's bare of siphons, bare of people, bare of machinery and bare of activity," Mr Deshon said, describing the 364-hectare (900-acre) farmland and rusting infrastructure.

The property's water entitlements of 6300ML capacity and 2540ML nominal volume were sold in 2013.

The 2.5GL figure equates to one-fortieth of what the entire Murray-Darling Basin plan hopes to recover.

Mr Baldwin said the government's preferred method of achieving water recovery was through efficiency programs.

He also sought to remind that all water buybacks were voluntary and not gained through compulsory acquisition.