Murray Darling Basin Authority boss says proof plan is working is in the river

SPAWNING fish and breeding birds are proof that the Murray-Darling Basin Plan is working, according to the head of the authority managing the river system, as Parliament prepares to vote on critical changes to the plan.

SPAWNING fish and breeding birds are proof that the Murray-Darling Basin Plan is working, according to the head of the authority managing the river system.

The Senate is set to vote on changes to the plan when Parliament returns in two weeks.

If approved, 605 gigalitres of water from the 2750GL plan would no longer be needed, as the authority aims to achieve environmental targets with water-saving projects.

Environmental groups and other critics say they no longer trust that those projects will deliver the promised outcomes, so they are threatening to vote for a disallowance motion moved by Greens Senator Sarah Hanson-Young to block that change.

That in turn could prompt Victoria and New South Wales to walk away from the $13 billion plan altogether.

But Murray-Darling Basin Authority chief executive Phillip Glyde said the concerns about the water were mistaken.

Pelicans at Narrung on the Lower Lakes, between Lake Alexandrina and Lake Albert on the River Murray in SA.

He said the authority would monitor all the projects and if the environmental outcomes were not met, the water needed to meet them would be returned.

“There is clear evidence of positive local-scale environmental outcomes, with positive ecological responses including fish spawning and movement, enhanced bird breeding events and improvements in the health of some areas of native vegetation including river red gum forests,” Mr Glyde said.

“If we continue with the Basin Plan, these benefits will continue to grow. If we do not stay the course, we not only risk the hard-won progress we have made to date, but also the future of our nation’s most iconic river system, consigning it once again to uncertainty and instability.”

Meanwhile, six politicians have written to the Auditor-General to ask him to investigate reports of overpayments for water under the plan.

The signatories include the three Centre Alliance representatives, Senator Hanson-Young, Australian Conservatives Senator Cory Bernardi, and Labor’s Tony Burke.

“If (allegations of overpayments) are true, this would mean that the Federal Government has not achieved value for money for the taxpayer,” their letter states.