Buybacks pass House despite deluge of outrage

Nationals Mallee MP Anne Webster said Labor "simply doesn't care" about the impacts buybacks would have on rural communities "because they hold zero seats in the basin".

"Labor's focus is squarely on making good on the promise they made to voters in the Adelaide suburban seat of Boothby in 2022, so it doesn't swing back to the Liberals," Dr Webster said.

Both sides of politics agree on the majority of the bill - more time and money to complete the plan - but the point of contention is plans to remove the safeguard mechanism, which prevent water buybacks that would be harmful to regional communities.

Nationals MP for Parkes, Mark Coulton, represents a third of the basin and was offended by the "ignorant talking points" of Labor politicians with "no skin in the game".

"Through your ignorance, you're going to support a policy that is going to decimate regional Australians, without even the courtesy to think it through yourself," Mr Coulton said.

"How is the 450GL going to be delivered without flooding? How is it going to get through the choke points in the river? How is it going to get down the river without eroding the banks?"

Labor Adelaide MP Steve Georganas said the new plan was not about "political ideology", but admitted South Australian politicians had been pressured by News Corp.

"The entire South Australia population was demanding we do something - in fact our local paper, the Adelaide Advertiser held every South Australian member of this place to account," Mr Georganas said.

"This was a campaign by the entire state of South Australia, including News Corp's Advertiser."

Multiple Labor MPs defended the legislation as necessary for the environment. But New England MP Barnaby Joyce said Labor was "sending regional Australia under a bus" to "garner an environmental vote in sections of urban Australia".

National Farmers' Federation chief executive Tony Mahar said the policy was not for the good of basin communities or the health of rivers.

"This bill is for marginal seats in South Australia," he said.

"What it will mean, it will mean less water to grow food and fibre. That means prices will go up and communities will be devastated."

Summerfruit Australia chief executive Trevor Ranford warned buybacks would push up the price of production, pull out trees and push out growers.

Liberal Barker MP Tony Pasin reminded South Australians they would not be exempt from water buybacks, with the state owing 38GL, and the Riverlands' population dropped by 30pc after the last round of buybacks.

"The Labor Party wants South Australians to think this is a zero sum game for South Australia, that all of this water can be recovered from those horrible, nasty irrigators in NSW and Victoria," Mr Pasin said.