Environment Minister Susan Close hands down government response to Murray-Darling Royal Commission

The Albanese Government will face pressure to dump blocks on water buybacks that are sinking efforts to save the Murray, the state government says.

South Australia will push the Albanese government to lift the cap on water buybacks in an effort to prevent the Murray from becoming a “dead river system”.

On Friday, Environment Minister Susan Close handed down the state government’s response to the Murray-Darling Basin Royal Commission, which was prompted in 2019 by allegations of water theft by NSW farmers.

SA Environment Minister Susan Close Picture: NCA NewsWire / Naomi Jellicoe

The response by the Minister and River Murray commissioner Richard Beasley SC said the recovery target of 3,200 gigalitres must be achieved in full to protect the river, and that the Howard-era 1,500 GL cap on buybacks “remains an impediment” to success.

It also said the Basin Plan will not deliver an “environmentally sustainable level of take” under current arrangements, including the urgent 450 GL necessary to protect river ecosystems.

The Royal Commission found government officials were driven by “politics rather than science” in setting water buyback targets and did not prioritise environmental needs.

The Minister’s response called on the federal government to immediately implement an “on-farm irrigation efficiency program in the Southern Basin that is open to all water entitlement holders and cannot be interfered with by the states”.

It also supported the Commissioner’s original findings that “there is no proportional relationship between a reduction in water use and a reduction in agricultural production”.

The Plan must also better incorporate the water needs of First Nations communities and be subjected to regular audits, according to the response.