Community Group Calls on Aussie Govt to Address ‘Imperfections’ of Murray Darling Basin Plan

Mayor Phil O'Connor overlooks the Murray-Darling Basin in Brewarrina, NSW, Australia on Feb. 17, 2020. Jenny Evans/Getty Images

A community group is encouraging the federal government to call out and address the “imperfections” of the controversial Murray Darling Basin Plan while urging for a greater understanding of the plan’s environmental impacts.

Speaking on the National Rural news podcast on Jan. 12, Shelley Scoullar, Chair and co-founder of the Speak Up Campaign—an advocacy group for Basin communities impacted by the Murray Darling Basin Plan—said that policymakers need to look at the reality of the Basin plan.

“[W]e’ve ended up with a basin plan based on numbers and not on outcomes,” Scoullar said.

“The basin plan is a difficult topic or piece of legislation, and we feel that politicians know that there (are) flaws within the basin plan but yet, aren’t brave enough to call them out.”

One major concern is the looming 2024 deadline for the Basin plan’s proposed targets.

Scoullar said that a number of advocacy and representative groups have highlighted the environmental issues surrounding the plan but are not “brave enough to lose votes” by addressing it publicly.

“We’re seeing some concerning ecological issues that have been raised in their heads since the implementation of the Basin Plan. In more blue-green algae blooms, we’re seeing more hypoxic Blackwater events. And we’ve got carp breeding at the moment out of control, and we’ve got all these issues that are about quality that needs to be addressed,” Scoullar said.

Water Buybacks and Infrastructure Projects

Among the issues concerning the plan include water buybacks and projects that connect the Murray-Darling Basin to the floodplain.

Water buybacks have been a controversial issue since the Murray Darling Basin Plan was legislated in 2012, with Victoria, New South Wales (NSW), the federal opposition, National Farmers Federation and the National Irrigators Council staunchly against the move.

However, Federal Water Minister Tanya Plibersek, South Australian Labor Water Minister Susan Close and South Australia Greens Senator Sarah Hanson-Young have both voiced support for the water buybacks, with Hanson-Young saying that license holders should be allowed to sell the commodity should they have water to sell.

In October 2022, the federal Labor government released its budget in which funding allocations to meet water-saving targets in the form of water buybacks for the Murray-Darling Basin were undisclosed “due to commercial sensitivities.”

In a previous interview with The Epoch Times, Jan Beer, a representative from the Upper Murray River Catchment Association in Victoria, said that water buybacks will affect the country’s ability to produce food.

“If they buy back that water or they take that further water out of the consumptive pool, then food production and food security will be greatly affected because the irrigators get the very last of what’s left in the consumptive bucket of water,” she said.

In November 2022, Beer called on NSW and Victoria to withdraw from the Murray Darling Basin plan saying that the economic impacts would be “enormous.”

Meanwhile, the chief executive of the Murray-Darling Basin Authority, Andrew McConville, said in November 2022 that another five to 10 years are needed so that projects, which connect the Murray to the floodplain, can be completed.

CEO of the Murray-Darling Basin Authority, Andrew McConville, speaks at the National Press Club in Canberra on Nov. 22, 2022. AAP Image/Lukas Coch

Under the Murray Darling Basin Plan—which received bipartisan support in 2012 under the Gillard government—the basin states of Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia and the Australian Capital Territory agreed to remove 2,750 gigalitres of water from irrigated agriculture and relocate that back into the basin by 2024.

Over the past decade, more than 2,100 gigalitres have been relocated back into the environment.

Moreover, under the plan, an additional 450 gigalitres of water is to be recovered through “efficiency measures,” which is also expected to be completed by 2024.

But only two gigalitres of water have been recovered under this measure.

“I think it will be—I have to be honest with you—next to impossible, given where we’re starting from [and] how far behind we are,” Federal Water Minister Tanya Plibersek said in July 2022.

Currently, 634 gigalitres are still to be recovered across Australia’s largest river network under the basin plan.

Some Solutions for the Environment

Scoullar said that revegetating areas to filter runoff water is one solution out of many that should be looked at.

“[W]e should be looking at fencing off the areas of riverbank to help reduce erosion, we should be really taking a look at wastewater management, and especially in some of our major rural townships along the Murray (River) and its tributaries.

“[A]nd if that wastewater management is up to scratch—where it should be—why aren’t we investing in these kinds of things, rather than just recovering water from farmers?”

A view of the Hume Weir at sunrise in Albury on February 23, 2007. Photo by Robert Cianflone/Getty Images

She added that industry and farming groups need to work together to educate those that don’t have an understanding of the reality of the impacts of the Basin Plan.

“[W]e’ve been going for nearly seven years now, and it’s just really hard to crack those messages into the city. It’s a struggle doing it on a shoestring budget.”

The basin ministers are expected to meet again in February 2023.