MDBA warns of wading back into water markets: NSW and Vic say no way

NSW and Victoria cannot meet a 2024 target on water recovery, but the states with the least to lose – Queensland and South Australia – are demanding they deliver.

Dry argument: NSW Water Minister Melinda Pavey is battling to reconfigure the Menindee Lakes to save water that would otherwise be stripped from irrigators. Picture: Toby Zerna

THE bid to curb the volume of water drained from Murray Darling Basin irrigation communities for the environment from 2680 gigalitres to 2075GL has sprung a leak, as key projects fall short of expectations.

The 2680GL target was cut by 605GL in 2016 on the basis that NSW and Victorian governments would offset most of the loss by delivering efficiency projects that created the same environmental benefits using the lower volume.

However, the MDBA’s June progress report on the states’ implementation of Sustainable Diversion Limit Adjustment Measures projects to deliver the 605GL has warned at least six “are at significant risk of not being operational” by the legislated June 2024 deadline.

“While it is difficult to assess the volume that these projects contribute to the SDL reduction precisely, it is estimated that they collectively contribute at least 150 GL,” it said.

The MDBA warned that if the SDLAM projects were not implemented by 2024, extra water recovery would be needed.

But both NSW and the Victorian governments have already warned they would not tolerate the MDBA nor any future federal government re-­entering the market to take water from irrigation areas.

Victorian Water Minister Lisa Neville said “I won’t stand by and let that happen. It’s inappropriate for the MDBA to threaten buy-backs, if unrealistic time-frames aren’t met.”

Victorian Opposition water spokeswoman Steph Ryan reiterated Ms Neville’s view, warning MDBA chief executive Phil Glyde needed to rethink any plans of using the water market for environmental water.

NSW Water Minister Melinda Pavey told her state colleagues at last Friday’s Ministerial Council meeting the 2024 deadline could not be delivered and must be extended.

But the South Australia, ACT and Queensland ministers rejected amending the deadline, prompting Ms Pavey to declare NSW would no longer attend MINCO meeting, unless there was a compromise.

The NSW Government is already struggling to deliver on its 2018 goal of reconfiguring Menindee’s four lakes, so that just two are used for storage, saving up to 106GL towards the SDLAM target. Two major fish kills in the Lower Darling have led to demands that any reconfiguration retains an environmental reserve of 400GL, which would dramatically cut NSW’s SDLAM contribution.

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