Water Minister ends buybacks policy
The Federal Government will end water buybacks in the Murray Darling, calling them a “blunt instrument” to recover water as a new report shows we’re on track to miss environmental targets.
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Buybacks of farmers’ water licences will officially end 12 years after they were launched to boost the environmental health of the River Murray.
Federal Water Minister Keith Pitt will today announce the commonwealth will no longer be buying back irrigators’ water entitlements as he launches a new action plan for the Murray-Darling Basin.
Conservation groups have warned against axing the scheme, which they describe as the “cheapest, quickest and most efficient” way to improve the vital river system’s health.
But Mr Pitt will declare buybacks a “blunt tool” and that he has heard “loud and clear” the calls from Basin communities to end them.
It comes as a new report, released today, finds authorities will fail to recover 450 gigalitres of water for the environment and the health of the Murray Mouth by the June 2024 deadline.
Mr Pitt will acknowledge authorities are “very much behind schedule” on recovering the 450GL, which South Australia fought to be locked into the Basin Plan for the long-term health of the river when it was launched in 2012.
It’s a “warning to all Basin governments” on the “need to adjust our approaches and redouble our efforts, Mr Pitt will say in response to the findings from the first review of the Water for the Environment Special Account.
“Our communities deserve our best efforts to meet our goals, and I am not about to call an early end to the game just because we’re behind on the scoreboard.”
“There is plenty of time between now and 2024 to consider our progress and refresh our thinking – now is not the time to give up.”
An extra $37.6m of federal funding will be allocated for downstream river health project to “mitigate the delays” in recovering the 450GL.
SA authorities and the community are expected to be involved in selecting the projects.
Water buybacks will be replaced with a renewed focus on “off-farm” projects such as upgrading irrigation infrastructure to improve water efficiency.
An independent panel’s inquiry into the social and economic impacts of the Basin Plan on communities, led by Robbie Sefton, was “critical” to Mr Pitt’s new action plan.
The report, handed to the Federal Government in April and released today, calls for slowing the pace of future water recovery to “match the capacity of communities … to cope”, and for “more time and flexibility” for 605GL of sustainable diversion adjustment measures projects to be achieved.
The minister will flag plans to create a new “single point of truth” for information on the river including water storages and allocations.
Greens Senator Sarah Hanson-Young said scraping buybacks and news that the 450GL would not be delivered on time was “a huge blow to the environment and hangs South Australia out to dry”.
“The National Party has stuffed the management of the Murray-Darling and banning the most efficient and cost-effective way to ensure the River gets the water it needs for survival will be the final nail in the coffin,” she said.
The South Australian senator called for a Royal Commission into Basin management.