Murray Darling Basin Plan: More buybacks on the table

Federal water minister Tanya Plibersek has confirmed more water buybacks are on the table as states call for more time to deliver the Basin Plan.

Federal water minister Tanya Plibersek with NSW water minister Kevin Anderson on Friday. Photo: Else Kennedy

Federal water minister Tanya Plibersek says she is considering additional water buybacks to meet environmental targets in the Murray Darling Basin.

“I am determined to deliver the basin plan in full,” Ms Plibersek told the Weekly Times.

“Everything needs to be on the table: infrastructure projects, on-farm efficiencies, water purchase.”

The statement came after Ms Plibersek announced on Wednesday the government would open tenders to purchase 49GL of water from irrigators to meet its Bridging the Gap target under the Murray Darling Basin Plan, drawing criticism from the NSW and Victorian governments and irrigator lobby groups, who said they were not consulted ahead of the announcement.

“I want state and territory ministers, Murray Darling Basin ministers, to know that I am determined to deliver on the whole of the Murray Darling Basin Plan,” she said.

“This is the responsibility of the Commonwealth government to deliver on the bridging the gap element of the Murray Darling Basin Plan … and I’m going to meet my responsibilities.”

Federal and state governments are under increasing pressure to make progress on the Basin Plan, which was due to be completed by June 2024 but is years behind schedule.

Federal water minister Tanya Plibersek says she is determined to deliver the Murray Darling Basin Plan in full. Picture: Dan Peled

The basin plan, which was brought into law in 2012, aimed to return 3200GL of water to the river system; to date, 2107GL have been recovered.

Six out of 36 major state-run water saving projects will not be delivered as proposed. Overall, 233GL of a planned 605GL in water savings projects were at high to extreme risk of not being delivered, according to the Murray Darling Basin Authority.

A second pool of 450GL in water savings was also unlikely to be delivered on time. To date, just 4.5GL been recovered, and 21.4GL contracted for delivery.

Water ministers from NSW, Victoria, South Australia, Queensland and the ACT met in Sydney on Friday to discuss how to bring the Murray Darling Basin Plan back on track.

NSW water minister Kevin Anderson and Victorian water minister Harriet Shing called on the federal government to grant the states an extension until 2026.

Mr Anderson said he was “disappointed” the federal government refused the request.

“We have been clearly articulating for months about needing more time and more flexibility to deliver on the basin plan. We’re committed to the basin plan. And unfortunately, that was not taken up today,” he said.

Mr Anderson said if his government was granted an extension, it would be able to meet “97 per cent” of its delivery targets.

“We believe we’ve got the plan in place, through our constraints measures. We need funding to to continue that and relax those constraints,” he said.

Ms Shing said Victoria could deliver the remaining 249GL of its 1075GL committment “if given until 2026 to do so”.