Water Minister Tanya Plibersek says Coalition deliberately tried to sabotage Murray Darling plan

New Water Minister Tanya Plibersek has revealed a damning assessment of the plan to restore the critical Murray-Darling Basin, and Labor’s next move to fix it.

Voluntary water buybacks are “definitely” on the table to restore river health in the Murray Darling Basin under Labor, as a damning report finds the Coalition’s previous plan “cannot” achieve agreed savings.

Accusing her predecessors of deliberately trying to “sabotage” the plan to return 450 gigalitres of water to the river system for the environment by 2024, Labor’s new Environment and Water Minister Tanya Plibersek said she would ask NSW and other states for “creative” and “cooperative” ways to get it back on track.

Ms Plibersek said it was premature of the Coalition to rule out voluntary buybacks and on-farm efficiency measures, arguing irrigators and farmers should be able to make the choice themselves.

“Why should they have the government ruling that out on their behalf,” she said.

“I think it was just an ideological determination by parts of the previous government that sabotaged delivery of the plan.”

Environment and Water Minister Tanya Plibersek in her office, in Parliament House in Canberra. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Gary Ramage

Ms Plibersek on Tuesday released a report she said the Coalition had buried in the lead up to the federal election, which showed the current measures were “not sufficient” to achieve the necessary water savings.

“It was kept secret because it shows that on current settings the 450GL will not be delivered,” she said.

Murray River National Park. Picture: Department of Environment and Water

Ms Plibersek will attend The Daily Telegraph Bush Summit in Griffith on August 26, with water expected to be a key issue discussed.

Initially $1.77 billion was allocated over ten years to achieve the 450GL goal, but the report – handed to the Morrison Government in December last year – found even with unlimited money and time, the proposals to improve efficiency and ease constraints on the river system would never be enough.

“Overall progress was not sufficient for us to conclude that … (water savings) will be delivered by 30 June 2024,” the report said.

The 450GL saving was agreed to by all Basin states after South Australia made it a condition of signing up to the rest of the plan, which governs how water is shared.