The water debate rages on in the Murray Darling Basin

Senate passes Basin Plan bill after Government makes buyback deal with Greens

By Krista Schade - December 6, 2023

The Senate has passed the Murray-Darling Basin Plan amendment bill following a deal made by the Albanese government and the Greens.

The bill passed on Thursday afternoon. It will now go back to the House of Representatives, where it is expected to pass.

The Federal environment and water minister, Tanya Plibersek (below), said that the deal includes a commitment - in law - that an extra 450GL of environmental water will be recovered by 2027.

“We know that as we go into another hot, dry spell, it is more critical than ever, that we deliver fully on the Murray Darling Basin Plan,” Plibersek said.

The Minister said the deal would improve the transparency of the plan and introduce greater accountability for the government on meeting targets.

The amendment bill will also give the government the power to withdraw state infrastructure projects that are found to be unviable.

The legislation extends the timeline in which water recovery targets should be reached to 2027, after it became clear a 2024 deadline would be missed. The newly passed bill also removes a cap on buybacks that was introduced by the previous government.

Ms Plibersek has also suggested Commonwealth land purchases could also be completed to meet the environmental commitments of the Basin Plan.

"We want to do on-farm efficiency measures, off-farm efficiency measures, we are looking at land and water purchases. We are looking at a whole range of things to make sure that we deliver [the] Murray-Darling Basin Plan in full," Ms Plibersek told ABC's 7:30 program.

Greens Senator Sarah Hanson-Young said the deal was a “breakthrough” that would secure water for the environment and “ensure the river is there for the future.”

The passing of the bill will be a blow to Hay Mayor Cr. Carol Oataway and Hay Shire Councillors who recently wrote to Member for Farrer Sussan Ley, seeking her support to work with the Albanese government to work towards “a solution and a better outcome for communities like ours.”

“The bill is not the solution for anyone – not for food production, not for the environment, and not for the sustainability of communities and more work needs to be done,” Cr Oataway wrote.

“Hay Shire remains opposed to buybacks in any form.

“Devastating communities to meet volumetric outcomes is unacceptable.

“We do, however, support the extension of the delivery date of the plan, and the inclusion of new projects to achieve increased efficiency measures and equivalent environmental outcomes.”

The community based Speak Up Campaign has called on politicians to improve their understanding of water policy and management, before making decisions that will impact the lives of all Australians.

Speak Up Chair Shelley Scoullar (top left) said she is not surprised Ms Plibersek is “struggling” with the water portfolio.

“Water is a very complex area, perhaps more so than previous portfolios held by Ms Plibersek. Additionally, she is inner-city born and bred and as such has had very limited experience with farming, rural life and the broader national environment in general. As country people we respect that, though it is disappointing that we do not seem to be getting the same respect in return.”

Mrs Scoullar said it was not surprising that the two cross-bench Senators who have agreed to support the government’s Murray-Darling Basin Plan changes are city-based politicians who do not have lived experience in rural communities.

“We were devastated to learn that Senators Van and Pocock would support the bill. However, we understand that water policy is a very complex issue and it was probably unrealistic to expect they would be able to fully understand how water management works.”

Mrs Scoullar highlighted how the Water Minister has identified the need for increased flows in the Darling River to provide safe drinking water for communities and prevent fish kills, and Speak Up agrees these issues need to be prioritised.

“However, you cannot recover water from the Southern Basin, store it in upstream dams and use it for environmental purposes in the Darling, which is fed from the Northern Basin. As a result, the Minister’s insistence on more water buybacks, much of which are inevitably going to come from the south, will not fix any of these problems.

“Pushing more water down the Murray River will only increase sedimentation, cause more riverbank erosion and collapse, exacerbate carp proliferation and, overall, result in environmental damage. These concerns have been highlighted by world-renowned scientists and those with lived experience in the river environs, but our city-based Minister doesn’t seem able to grasp this concept,” Mrs Scoullar said.

The Murray Regional Strategy Group, which represents a range of community and farming organisations, says the amendment bill which passed last week in the Senate, is a sad day in Australia’s history.

“Our organisation, and numerous others who live and breathe the Murray-Darling Basin, support implementation of the Basin Plan,” said MRSG chair Geoff Moar (picture above).

“When it was signed, we were promised a flexible and adaptive plan, with mechanisms in place to protect rural communities, especially from devastating water buybacks. That has been abandoned,” Mr Moar said.

He pointed out that when Ms Plibersek’s cabinet colleague Tony Burke was Water Minister and the Basin Plan legislation was being drafted, he made a deliberate point of highlighting the issue of constraints, in particular when considering recovery of the additional 450GL.

At the time, Mr Burke said: “… once you go beyond the 2750 (GL of water recovery), with the constraints that are in the system, for extra gigalitres of water you don’t get a significant environmental improvement.”

“Nothing has changed in that regard,” Mr Moar said. “The additional 450GL, will be for political gain and not environmental gain.”

What they’re saying

The reaction to the passing of the Restoring Our Rivers Bill in the Senate last Thursday has been swift and varied.

“The adoption of this ‘Restoring Our Rivers’ water bill reminds our community of what happened over a decade ago,” Hay Mayor Carol Oataway told The Grazier.

“As a result of buybacks in 2012, many residents lost their jobs, school enrolments halved, Hay Public School was downgraded, population declined, house prices plummeted and businesses suffered.

“In lockstep with this was a decline in mental health, prompting our community to start its own CASE (Community Action for Suicide Elimination) group.

“The flow-on effects were nothing short of devastating.”

"The Basin's heart has been broken by a Government that has ignored communities and hasn't even bothered to visit those who will be impacted by this dreadful backroom deal," National Farmers' Federation President David Jochinke said.

“We’re talking about the largest inland river system in Australia, supporting threatened plants and animals and delivering drinking water for three million Australians.

“We have to get this right,” Federal Environment and Water Minister Tanya Plibersek said.

“Not delivering this is simply not an option. We want to make sure we have a healthy and sustainable river system for the communities, industry, First Nations groups and environment that rely on it.”

“It is going to be a tough time for our communities, there’s no doubt about that,” Speak Up Campaign’s Shelley Scoullar said.

“The Greens have secured a critical lifeline for the Murray-Darling Basin. This is a significant win for the environment and river communities to stop our rivers running dry,” said Greens Senator Sarah Hansen-Young.

“It (the Amendment bill) will damage rural communities, force up food prices and destroy jobs,” said Member for Murray Helen Dalton in NSW Parliament last week.