The states will have three more years to complete water efficiency projects in the Murray-Darling and will be offered more money, but more water buybacks from agriculture are also on the table, the federal water minister has said.
Tanya Plibersek announced on Tuesday she had struck an agreement with all but one of the basin states to extend the Murray-Darling Basin plan and increase the funding beyond the original $13bn that has been allocated.
Plibersek also said she would amend the Water Act to lift the embargo on water purchases by the commonwealth, a move that is likely to enrage farming communities and the Nationals.
“Australia is facing an environmental emergency. The Murray-Darling pumps life into the heartland of our country,” Plibersek said.
“If we don’t act now to preserve it, our basin towns will be unprepared for drought, our native animals will face the threat of extinction, our river ecosystems will risk environmental collapse, and our food and fibre production will be insecure and unsustainable.”
The Victorian government has not signed up for the new Murray-Darling plan because of its concerns about the economic impact of buybacks on Victorian agriculture.
Plibersek said she wanted to continue negotiations with the Andrews Labor government. But if Victoria did not participate it would not have access to the new funds, including compensation to communities, and Victoria would likely face a higher level of water buybacks, she warned.
The plan is aimed at bringing the basin back to a healthy and sustainable level by limiting the amount of water that can be taken from it each year. Farmers are entitled to a set amount of water, and water can be returned to the environment in two ways – by the government buying back entitlements or by using the water in the river system more effectively.
An audit of the current Murray-Darling Basin plan has found that the plan will likely fall about 750 gigalitres short of its total of 3,200GL by the deadline of June 2024. That’s about 20% of the water that was to be recovered for the environment.
About 300GL of the shortfall is due to major water saving projects either running late or failing to materialise.
These are known as the Sustainable Diversion Limit Adjustment Mechanism projects, which were supposed to deliver the equivalent of 605GL of water through efficiencies such as reducing evaporation.
Plibersek said that of 36 projects, six were on time, 14 were running late and 16 were “in trouble” and unlikely to be delivered.
The states are now being given until December 2026 to come up with viable projects and deliver them.
Progress on another tranche of water – the 450GL promised to South Australia – is even worse: just 2GL. The states will have until December 2027 to propose ways to retrieve this water, but Plibersek foreshadowed that voluntary buybacks will be needed.
“We have got a long way to go. That 450 gigalitres of additional environmental water, if we just wanted to buy that, just to give you an idea of the volume, you’re talking about 180,000 Olympic-sized swimming pools.”
Victoria’s water minister, Harriet Shing, said: “Victoria has delivered more water than any other state towards the up to 450GL of additional water and will support the return of water to the environment and the delivery of the Murray-Darling basin plan as long as it meets the agreed socioeconomic criteria.”
She said the Victorian government would continue to work with the Albanese government on a way forward to complete critical environmental and infrastructure projects.
Plibersek blamed the shortfall on the Coalition “deliberately sabotaging” the plan while in office.
Plibersek will face challenges getting her legislation through the Senate, with support from the opposition highly unlikely. She will be dependent on Greens and crossbench support, with the Greens likely to push for more rapid action.
“Sadly today’s announcement is little more than an agreement to kick the can down the road yet again,” the Greens’ water spokesperson, Sarah Hanson-Young, said.
“After a decade of broken promises there is still nothing to guarantee the delivery of 450 gigalitres of water promised to South Australia and the environment.
“If minister Plibersek wants this to pass the Senate, we need environmental flows guaranteed and water flowing to SA before the next election,” she said.
The legislation needs to be through by December.
The NSW Irrigators’ Council strongly condemned the federal government’s plan for additional water buybacks, saying the announcement has sent shockwaves through basin communities.
“Buying back the NSW share of an additional 450GL of water will remove the equivalent of nearly half of the remaining high-security water that’s left for farming in the NSW southern basin,” said the council’s acting CEO, Christine Freak.
“This is very concerning, given the severe socio-economic and water market impacts, and implications for Australia’s food bowl.”
Environment Victoria’s CEO, Jono La Nauze, accused the Andrews government of “clinging to Barnaby Joyce-style policies that would block the most cost-effective and feasible solution – buying water for the river”.
He warned that Victoria risked missing out on funds to support river communities.
