Time to fix Murray Darling Basin Plan, says Keith Pitt

The Federal Government stands ready to carve up the Murray Darling Basin Authority and permanently end irrigation water buyouts.

Mr Fix-it: Water Minister Keith Pitt is sick of the talkfests and wants action to put rural communities back at the heart of the Murray Darling Basin Plan.

THE Murray Darling Basin Authority will be carved up and future buyouts of irrigation communities’ water will end, Federal Water Minister Keith Pitt will announce on Friday.

“I’ve consistently heard from Basin communities that they’ve had enough of being consulted and talked to,” Mr Pitt told The Weekly Times.

“I assure them that the time for reviews is ending. I intend to take serious action to ensure better management of the Murray Darling Basin.”

It is likely to include delivering on the 2018 Productivity Commission recommendation to split the MDBA, with one agency implementing the plan and another evaluating and overseeing compliance.

Mr Pitt is also set to lock in reforms that block any future Government entering water markets to buy up entitlement for the environment.

Northern Victorian MP Damian Drum said the ­Coalition wanted to eliminate the risk of a future Labor government wading into the MDB’s water markets.

Mr Drum said it was ­likely the bid to find 605 gigalitres of sustainable diversion adjustment measures projects did not stack up, which under the current plan meant the government re-entering the market to deliver on the basin plan.