Murray-Darling Basin plan in deep water but ‘restart not on’
Tearing up the Murray-Darling Basin Plan to start anew is not an option, federal Water Minister Tanya Plibersek says.
Despite water recovery targets being so off track it will be “virtually impossible” to achieve them on time, tearing up the Murray-Darling Basin Plan to start anew is not an option, federal Water Minister Tanya Plibersek says.
With deadlines under the plan looming, Ms Plibersek said her focus was on how to achieve “maximum progress in the time we’ve got”, conceding that it would be “extremely challenging” to meet the original commitments in the remaining time.
This includes the government voluntarily buying back 49 gigalitres of water from the market.
Ms Plibersek earlier this month announced she had requested advice from the Murray-Darling Basin Authority on whether the Basin Plan would meet its water recovery targets come June 30, 2024.
“We’ve had some very good offers for water that we’re just slowly and methodically working our way through,” she said.
Ms Plibersek said she had given a “clear direction” to her Murray-Darling Basin state government counterparts to come up with proposals to “contribute to the delivery of the plan”.
Signed by Murray-Darling Basin states and the federal government in 2012, the plan set water allocation limits, promoted efficiency measures and aimed to restore the health of the river system by balancing the needs of agriculture, industry and the environment.
The plan aimed to return 2750GL of water – equivalent to about four Sydney Harbours – to the environment through buybacks and infrastructure by 2019 and a further 450GL through water-saving measures by 2024.
In a damning assessment of the current state of the plan, Ms Plibersek said it was a “long way off track”.
“We’re working really closely with state and territory governments to get back on track, but it is a massive undertaking because so little has been done in the last decade,” she said.
Ms Plibersek said 80 per cent of the water that had been recovered towards the plan had occurred under Labor governments.
“It’s frustrating that we’ve inherited a plan that is so far off track but that is no excuse,” Ms Plibersek said.
“We have got to get it back on track and deliver it.”
The Coalition has criticised Labor’s handling of the plan, with nationals emergency management spokeswoman Perin Davey slamming the government for not committing to funds for Covid-delayed water recovery or constraints projects in Victoria and NSW beyond July 1 next year.
“The fear is, without the extension, there will be a mad rush to buy the gap prior to the legislated end to the Basin Plan – and that will come at a huge cost to government, to communities and to the Australian economy,” she said.
Experts have estimated that the cost to purchase enough water licenses to bridge the cap would be more than $20bn, which is not an option that is currently being considered.
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