THE Victorian Farmers Federation says “common sense” has prevailed after the Federal Government’s decision to extend the timeframe for implementing the Murray-Darling Basin Plan.
A statement released by Murray-Darling Basin Authority chair Sir Angus Houston last week informed Water Minister Tanya Plibersek that full implementation of the plan would not be possible by next year’s June deadline, saying that “the authority remains deeply concerned about key aspects of the plan’s delivery”.
“Implementation of the basin plan is at a critical juncture,” Sir Angus wrote.
“It is important that the challenges inhibiting the full delivery of the basin plan are quickly addressed to provide a clear pathway forward.
“With a changing climate, implementing the basin plan remains central to giving our rivers and the communities that depend on them the best chance of a healthy future.”
VFF Water Council chair Andrew Leahy said the VFF had consistently advocated for flexibility in the implementation of the basin plan and ensuring that efficiency projects have the time to be completed.
“Countless government reports over the past five years have told us this needed to happen,” he said. “It’s good to see the Commonwealth Government has finally listened to these reports and to farming communities.”
Mr Leahy said despite the welcome news, northern Victorian farmers remained troubled by the government’s desire to buyback water against the 450GL up-water target.
“The VFF remains very concerned that Ms Plibersek believes there is a 750GL shortfall in the basin plan,” he said. “The only way she can come up with that number is by including the 450GL up-water target, pushing the basin plan to a 3200GL target.”
“The 450GL was never guaranteed, is in addition to the 2750GL basin plan target, and remains subject to the socio-economic test. The basin plan requires additional water recovery to have neutral or positive socio-economic outcomes.”
Mr Leahy reiterated that water buybacks breach the socio-economic test and must not occur.
“We know that water buybacks reduce the pool of water available for food production,” he said. “Even the Australian Bureau of Agricultural Resource Economics concluded in 2020 that water buybacks will increase the price of water.
“Water buybacks to achieve the 450GL would breach the socio-economic test and legally should not occur. The Commonwealth must be held to account so no recovery of the 450GL is in breach of this criteria.”
Ms Plibersek on Friday told the ABC she had looked at every possible way of delivering the remaining water on time, but conceded “it was not possible”.
“We are also at the moment already beginning to buy back water,” she said. “We have got an open tender at the moment. It is about infrastructure, it is about getting the settings right through those plans and it is about buying water.
“I am confident that we can work together with the states and territories to set new deadlines, but those new deadlines need to come with strong assurances from the states and territories that they will deliver on their share of the plan.”
Ms Plibersek said discussions with basin states had started on delivering a new timeline.
“I want to get this done as soon as practical because as sure as night follows day in Australia, we have had wet years and we are going into a dry spell,” she said.
“I don’t want to wake up in a year’s time and know that we could have saved the river system, the plants and animals and communities that depend on the river system and we didn’t do enough.”
Shadow Water Minister Perin Davey rejected claims the basin plan was behind schedule because the Liberals and Nationals “sabotaged” its delivery, saying much of the implementation of the plan was dependent on states and out of Federal Government control.
“If the minister is talking about the 450GL, it was not the Nationals who wrote in the basin plan that it must only be pursued if it delivers ‘positive or neutral’ social and economic outcomes,” Senator Davey said.
“The Liberals and Nationals just honoured the criteria written by Tony Burke in 2012 and we worked with the Basin Ministerial Council, at the time made up evenly of Labor and Coalition members, to develop the social and economic test which was then agreed in 2018.
“If the 450GL can’t be delivered in the way Tony Burke envisaged, and was agreed to with the states then it should not be delivered. I believe he wrote the plan that way because he listened to the communities and I ask the current minister to do the same.”
INDEPENDENT Member for Murray Helen Dalton has called on the Federal Government to abandon the basin plan “once and for all”.
“If the government intends to stick to this plan, they are simply planning to fail,” Mrs Dalton said.
“Ms Plibersek needs to stop flogging this dead horse and just bury it.
“The Murray-Darling Basin Authority needs to come clean and admit it doesn’t know what it’s doing.”
Mrs Dalton said the MDBA was “out of touch and should he put out to pasture”.
“Our rivers must no longer be mismanaged from inside carpeted offices in metropolitan cities,” she said.
“Rural people’s lives depend on this water.
“We care for the rivers and that’s why it’s time to let us run the rivers, because only we know what’s really going on out here.
“Clearly no one in Canberra does.”
