Helen Dalton MP INDEPENDENT MEMBER FOR MURRAY MEN NSW No Fuel + No Fertiliser + No Water = No Food Diesel up 70% in four years. Fertiliser surging past $1,000 a tonne. And the federal government is still buying back water from the people who grow your food. This is what it looks like when a nation forgets who feeds it. Right now, farmers across the Murray-Darling Basin are being hit from three directions at once. Fuel costs have pushed weekly bills up 74%. Fertiliser has become so expensive that growers can only pass 12% of the cost increase on to consumers. The other 88% comes straight out of their pockets. One in five vegetable growers has stopped harvesting crops already in the ground because the numbers no longer stack up. And while farmers absorb these blows, the Albanese Government expanded its water buyback program to 300 gigalitres, stripping productive water from irrigation communities despite calls from the NSW Irrigators' Council to pause over probity failures. NSW Parliament backed my motion for a Royal Commission into water. The federal government ignored it. The result? Broadacre farm profits are forecast to drop 40% next year. Dairy farms have declined 30% since 2014. Australia's food imports have surged 48% in a decade. Every dollar a farmer earns drives $2.80 into regional economies. When farms fail, towns empty. Schools close. Hospitals lose staff. Main streets become ghost strips. Murray feeds this nation. The Basin alone contributes $30 billion a year to our economy. Farmers are not asking for handouts. They are asking to stop being treated like they do not matter. Helen Dalton MP for Murray Authorised by Helen Dalton MP, Funded using Parliamentary Entitlements. Griffith 02 6962 6644 Deniliquin 03 5881 7034 Buronga 0475 683 288 murray@parliament.nsw.gov.au Helen Dalton MP INDEPENDENT MEMBER FOR MURRAY MEN NSW No Fuel + No Fertiliser + No Water = No Food Diesel up 70 % in four years . Fertiliser surging past $ 1,000 a tonne . And the federal government is still buying back water from the people who grow your food . This is what it looks like when a nation forgets who feeds it . Right now , farmers across the Murray - Darling Basin are being hit from three directions at once . Fuel costs have pushed weekly bills up 74 % . Fertiliser has become so expensive that growers can only pass 12 % of the cost increase on to consumers . The other 88 % comes straight out of their pockets . One in five vegetable growers has stopped harvesting crops already in the ground because the numbers no longer stack up . And while farmers absorb these blows , the Albanese Government expanded its water buyback program to 300 gigalitres , stripping productive water from irrigation communities despite calls from the NSW Irrigators ' Council to pause over probity failures . NSW Parliament backed my motion for a Royal Commission into water . The federal government ignored it . The result ? Broadacre farm profits are forecast to drop 40 % next year . Dairy farms have declined 30 % since 2014. Australia's food imports have surged 48 % in a decade . Every dollar a farmer earns drives $ 2.80 into regional economies . When farms fail , towns empty . Schools close . Hospitals lose staff . Main streets become ghost strips . Murray feeds this nation . The Basin alone contributes $ 30 billion a year to our economy . Farmers are not asking for handouts . They are asking to stop being treated like they do not matter . Helen Dalton MP for Murray Authorised by Helen Dalton MP , Funded using Parliamentary Entitlements . Griffith 02 6962 6644 Deniliquin 03 5881 7034 Buronga 0475 683 288 murray@parliament.nsw.gov.au