Murray-Darling Basin plan revived with controversial water buybacks, but won't include Victoria
Federal Water Minister Tanya Plibersek has brokered a deal to re-write Australia's $13 billion Murray-Darling Basin Plan, steamrolling Victorian Labor, and allowing for the widescale resumption of controversial water buybacks and an extension to deadlines for major infrastructure projects.
The new agreement among basin states excludes Victoria, and will require New South Wales to backtrack on its previous opposition to buying back water entitlements in exchange for more time to deliver water-saving projects.
Under the agreement, the federal, NSW, South Australian, Queensland and ACT governments will seek to:
Allow Commonwealth buybacks of irrigation licences to return 450 gigalitres (GL) of water to the environment
Extend the deadline for recovering the 450GL target from June 2024 to December 2027
Grant an 18-month extension to state-run water-saving projects from June 2024 to December 2026
Allow for new water-saving projects to be established and completed by December 2026
"We know that south-east Australia in particular is getting hotter and drier … the next drought is just around the corner," Ms Plibersek said.
"We can't stand by and allow our threatened species, our rivers, our wetlands, and the three million people who rely on this river system for their drinking water to be unprepared for the next dry period."
To read the rest of this article, follow the link here: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-08-22/plibersek-brokers-new-murray-darling-basin-deal/102758998
Source: Kath Sullivan, ABC News, 22 August 2023.