Federal Member for Farrer David Farley has slammed the result of a class action lawsuit ruling against a group of 28,000 irrigators affected by Murray Darling Basin Authority (MDBA) artificial man-made flooding.

“MDBA is treating water like stale beer to be sloshed around without respect to the high-value agricultural assets and crops it should be growing,” Mr Farley said.

The $1.5 billion case, finalised in the NSW Supreme Court, determined the MDBA does not hold a duty of care to water license and landholders and that its obligations remain to basin states environmental objectives.

Irrigators in the central Murray region of southern NSW were in the case as well as those from Victoria.

The plaintiffs have been ordered to pay the legal fees of the MDBA.

It’s not yet clear whether the matter will be appealed.

“What hope is there for Australia if statutes are governed and judged in this manner?” Mr Farley said.

He says he sees it as “another incremental move to socialism”.

“The government is eroding the equity securing freehold title and interfering with agricultural productivity without consequence, accountability and responsibility,” he said.

“The federal and NSW governments have effectively taken a free carry equity position in agricultural land - akin to a tick on a dog - rent free, unproductive with the capacity to sicken the dog.”

Mr Farley, who is in direct communication with irrigators on the issue, said he aims to bring both the direct and unintended consequences of the matter to his constituency.

“I want to address this erosion of freehold value, the interference in cropping and grazing programs, and the reduction of arable land base to Australia,” he said.

“We need confidence in governments to equitably represent regional Australia.”

According to Southern Riverina Irrigators CEO Sophie Baldwin, the case revealed some admissions.

“One of the most critical things to come out of the class action was the admission by the MDBA that when they go overbank, they waste between 36-41 per cent of the water volume,” Ms Baldwin said.

“This is a significant admission and with the continued push to relax constraints and flood both private and public land under the basin plan – effectively this amount of water will be wasted every single time.

“Agriculture, food security, jobs and communities are in the spotlight and at a critical point in time with both the Basin Plan and Water Act reviews currently happening.”