NSW and Victoria are warning they can’t meet the deadline for the $13 billion Murray-Darling Basin Plan, imperilling a key election promise of the Albanese government and forcing federal Water Minister Tanya Plibersek into a clash with state ministers who hold the fate of the reform in their hands.
Labor secured 77 lower house seats in the May federal election, just one more than the bare minimum needed to form a majority government, winning one crucial seat – Boothby – from the Liberals after Prime Minister Anthony Albanese pledged to deliver the Murray-Darling Basin Plan in full.
Water Minister Tanya Plibersek and Prime Minister Anthony Albanese.Credit:Alex Ellinghausen
Boothby is a marginal Adelaide electorate at the bottom of the Murray-Darling river system, where residents rely on flows from upstream in Victoria, NSW and Queensland to keep their river healthy.
Albanese kicked off Labor’s campaign in Boothby announcing a new $26 million national water commission to complete the basin plan, which is legislated to be finalised by the end of 2024, but currently behind schedule largely because NSW and Victoria are lagging on key infrastructure works and water reforms.
The basin plan was created in 2007 under public pressure over the parlous state of Australia’s largest inland river system, designed to recover the equivalent of 3200 gigalitres, following advice from CSIRO that urgent action was needed to address the over-allocation of irrigation entitlements.
The Water Act was rewritten to set a deadline to recover all the water by the end of 2024. More than 2100 gigalitres of water have been recovered to date, but much of the hard work is yet to be done.
NSW and Victoria are yet to finalise designs for large-scale water-saving schemes worth billions of dollars, known as Sustainable Diversion Limit Adjustment Mechanism projects.
Another element of the plan originally designed to recover 450 gigalitres of water from irrigators, roughly the size of Sydney Harbour, has been amended by NSW and Victoria, so the water cannot be recovered from farmers but as yet no alternative has been identified.
The state and federal governments are set to hold the first basin plan ministerial council in two years in Canberra on Wednesday. NSW and Victorian water ministers told The Age and Sydney Morning Herald they need extensions to the 2024 deadline.
“NSW will be requesting more time for the Sustainable Diversion Limit Adjustment Mechanism projects to be delivered beyond the 30 June, 2024 deadline,” NSW Water Minister Kevin Anderson said.
Flooding along the Darling River at Bourke in January, as heavy rains slowly made their way down the river system.Credit:Nick Moir
He said he did not support changes to the 450 gigalitre commitment under the basin plan that could unwind the block put on recovering irrigation water.
Victorian Water Minister Harriet Shing said her state was working towards the basin plan’s goals, but will likely not meet the deadline to complete the infrastructure works. Like NSW, Shing is committed to the current arrangements for recovering the 450 gigalitres.
“We have been open about the need to be flexible on 2024 for some complex projects because they need to be co-designed with communities,” Shing said. “It is in everyone’s best interests for these projects to be given a chance.”
However, South Australian Water Minister Susan Close signalled the risk for the federal government over its commitment to deliver the basin plan as it was intended, warning she would not accept any delays as she blamed NSW for the impasse.
“While I’m keen to participate in a productive ministerial council meeting, I won’t resile from advocating for the plan being delivered in full,” Close said.
“South Australia’s priority has always been to have a fully delivered basin plan – that means the 450GL for the health of the basin, and verification that the projects.
“Report after report has raised serious questions about whether these are on track, and NSW ministers have repeatedly refused to take the necessary actions.”
Albanese announced a five-point plan in April which he said would uphold the Murray-Darling plan and lay the groundwork for its future by “restoring integrity, boosting compliance and driving reforms”.
Plibersek said she would work with the states to get the basin plan back on track after the Nationals Party “deliberately sabotaged the basin plan for almost a decade” under the former Coalition government.
“At the time of the election, the Nationals hadn’t held a meeting of the Murray-Darling Ministerial Council for over 13 months.
“We’re not going to solve a decade of sabotage at the first meeting. I will work constructively with my state and territory counterparts to chart a pathway to deliver the plan we agreed.”
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