Murray Darling buybacks: Farm leaders urge rethink, as Labor push for deadline extension

Farming leaders are urging the government to rethink its buyback strategy, amid a push for an extension to the basin plan deadline.

Farm leaders and irrigators are urging the federal government to use any extension to the $13 billion Murray Darling Basin Plan deadline to investigate alternative projects to boost environmental flows instead of taking the “lazy option” of further buybacks.

The calls follow reports that federal Labor is finding it “extremely difficult” to return the full 450 gigalitres of environmental water to the Murray Darling Basin within the legislated June 2024 time frame.

The Albanese government opened a tender for a new round of buybacks in February to meet the MDBP’s so-called ‘Bridging the Gap’ target, ignoring warnings from major stakeholders, including the Victorian and NSW governments standing united in opposition to any further federal buyouts, that the time frame was unrealistic.

However, The Australian has reported that Federal Environment and Water Minister Tanya Plibersek has written seeking formal advice from ­Murray-Darling Basin Authority chair Angus Houston on whether the plan could hit its deadline.

“Despite the progress we have made over the last year, it is clear that with one year to go delivering the basin plan within the legislated time frames will be extremely difficult,” she wrote.

Federal Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek. Picture: Nikki Davis-Jones

“The plan is too far behind and likely requires significant change to make substantial progress.”

A Victorian government spokesperson “welcomed the Commonwealth Government’s openness” to working with states and said that it would push for a two-year extension.

However, she reiterated that the Andrews government will not support buybacks but continue to work towards delivering its obligations “without causing socio-economic harm to communities.”

National Farmers’ Federation water committee chair Malcolm Holm said the agriculture industry was willing to work with government “the smart way, rather than thumping communities with more buybacks.”.

“We can deliver every drop of the basin plan targets without taking the lazy option of buybacks,” he said.

He said the NFF had collaborated with representative groups “up and down the basin” to compile an array of innovative proposals, including advanced storage options and precision management techniques, that could restore 1000GL.

“By embracing these innovative projects, the Government can strike a balance between effective water resource management and the needs of farmers and regional communities,” he said.

National Irrigators Council chief executive Isaac Jeffrey said he hoped the ministerial council would extend current timelines after farmers had already given up over 2100GL.

“They’ve done the heavy lifting and it’s time for basin governments to deliver on their commitments,” he said.

“It’s better to have a good plan which works, then a bad plan which destroys jobs, businesses, communities, food availability and the cost of living.”

Nationals shadow water Minister Perin Davey told The Weekly Times that it was “better late than never” that the federal government was heeding calls from basin communities “who have been hanging in limbo”.

She said the Coalition was willing to work with the government to extend the deadlines but only if it meant working towards an outcome-based solution “without resorting to buybacks or taking water out of the consumptive pool”.

“What we are not willing to do is see any weakening of the proviso, written into the basin plan by Labor’s Tony Burke in 2012, that the 450GL must only be delivered if there is no negative social and economic impact,” she said.

“If that criteria, supported by all basin ministers of both political persuasions in 2018, can’t be met, then the 450GL should not be delivered.”

Prior to the recent Victorian budget, the government put several sustainable diversion limit adjustment mechanism projects on hold because they could not guarantee the federal funds would flow beyond the basin plan deadlines they had requested to be extended.

A Water for the Environment Special Account report released last August found only 26GL out of the 450GL target had been recovered, or contracted for recovery.

However, Environment Victoria chief executive Jono La Nauze described a potential delay as “devastating news” for the environment, “particularly with an El Nino looming and the next drought just around the corner”.

Briding the gap tenders closed in May and offers are expected to be made in August.