Water buyout targets southern Murray-Darling Basin’s private diverters

The federal government’s 2024 water purchasing plan will first target southern Murray-Darling Basin’s private diverters.

The federal government plans to first try and buyout private diverters water, most of which supports high value crops, such as almonds, olives and tablegrapes. Picture: Yuri Kouzmin

The federal government’s draft 450 gigalitre water recovery plan will initially target southern Murray-Darling Basin’s private diverters.

Federal Water Minister Tanya Plibersek launched a draft purchasing plan this week, in a bid to boost the Basin’s environmental flows by an extra 450 gigalitres, on top of the 2100GL already recovered.

The plan states “targeted voluntary water purchases will commence in 2024 focused on private diverters to allow more time to discuss options with major irrigation networks”.

It appears purchases from gravity irrigation districts will be delayed, with the plan stating the government will work with operators to determine if “water purchase and network rationalisation opportunities may help minimise the socio‑economic impacts of water recovery”.

In the northern Basin the plan focuses on changing water rules, such as further restrictions on irrigators harvesting water after drought “to protect the first flush of water through the system.

“Further, water markets in the northern Basin are comparatively ‘thin’. The volume of total entitlements issued is lower than in the southern Basin and there is significantly less trade.

“Over the last decade, there has been, on average, nine times less annual trade of entitlements in the north when compared to the south. This means that relying on the water market alone as a method to recover water may be limiting.”

The move comes despite ministerial briefing documents, released to the public last September, showing Ms Plibersek was told by her departmental bureaucrats “analysis indicates that around 100GL of the 450GL could be shifted away from the southern Basin without substantially changing mid and lower Murray flood plain outcomes”.

Apart from water purchasing the draft plan also covers a Resilient Rivers Program, in which “participating state governments can now bring forward proposals for new water-saving infrastructure projects like irrigation network upgrades”.

However it remains unclear whether Victoria can participate in this program, given state Water Minister Harriet Shing’s refusal to sign up to the federal 450GL recovery deal.

The third component of the plan outlines how the federal government will work with communities and the states to “minimise the socio-economic impacts” of stripping water out of irrigation communities, but provides little detail.