Murray-Darling Basin Authority - The Murray-Darling Basin Plan

The Murray-Darling Basin Plan

The Murray-Darling Basin Plan was signed off by Tony Burke, Minister for Sustainability, Environment, Water, Population and Communities on 22 November 2012, and passed its final hurdle in the Australian Parliament on the 29 November 2012. Following is the history leading up to this significant occasion in the history of Australian water reform.

On 8 October 2010, the Authority released a major document entitled the Guide to the Proposed Murray-Darling Basin Plan outlining a plan to secure the long-term ecological health of the Murray-Darling Basin. The plan entailed cutting existing water allocations and increasing environmental flows. The proposed plan is the first part of a three-stage process to address the problems of the Murray-Darling Basin; namely, over-allocation, prolonged drought, natural climate variability and climate change, leading to deteroriation of rivers, wetlands, forests and floodplains in the basin. MDBA is responsible for preparing and overseeing a legally enforceable management plan – the Basin Plan. The main aim of the Plan is to return between 3,000 and 4,000 GL to the river system. The authority reported that the number being as high as 7,600 gigaliters per year would bring long-term sustainability and would be the best scenario for the ecosystems of the basin but "would not be socially or economically viable".

The Basin Plan is claimed to be designed to set and enforce environmentally sustainable limits on the quantities of water that may be taken from Basin water resources, to set Basin-wide environmental, water quality and salinity objectives, to develop efficient water trading regimes across the Basin, to set requirements for state water resource plans and to improve water security for all Basin users. It also intends to optimise social and economic impacts once these environmental outcomes have been met.

With the release of the Guide to the Proposed Murray-Darling Basin Plan there were a significant number of protests and voiced concerns in rural towns that the MDBA visited to present the proposed plan at consultation meetings. In Renmark, more than 500 people attended the Authority's first public consultation meeting in the local hotel that accommodated only 250 people. The draft plan proposed water cuts of up to 35% in the Riverland area, forcing job losses and reduced flows to angry irrigators. Over 5,000 people attended a meeting in Griffith where the local Mayor, Mike Neville, said the plan would "obliterate" Murrumbidgee valley communities. Other groups also echoed this feeling, such as the Victorian Farmers Federation and the Wine Group Growers' Australia. There was also been support for the draft plan by various groups, including the Australian Conservation Foundation, and Environment Victoria.

In legal advice, dated 25 October 2010, from the Australian Government Solicitor, the Government's reading is that the draft plan must give equal weight to the environmental, social and economic impacts of proposed cuts to irrigation. Environmentalists and South Australian irrigators say the Authority should stick to its original figure. In October 2010, a parliamentary inquiry into the economic impacts of the plan was announced. While, in November 2010, the Authority announced that it might be forced to push back the release of its final plan for the river system until early 2012.

Less than one month later, Mike Taylor, then Chair of the Authority, announced his decision to resign effective from the end of January 2011. In announcing his resignation, he cited his concerns that the Water Act made it difficult to balance the environmental and socio-economic impacts of cuts to water allocations aimed at rescuing rivers in the basin. Of crucial concern was Taylor's desire to not oversee a process that returned less than 3,000 GL to the basin. Both the Prime Minister, Julia Gillard, and the Water Minister, Tony Burke, rejected Taylor's concerns that the Water Act and the objectives of the Authority were compromised.

In May 2011, The Wentworth Group of Concerned Scientists withdrew its support for the Murray Darling Basin Plan, who described the process as seriously flawed and a waste of taxpayers' money. The Wentworth Group said they could not support the plan which they believed would cost billions and claimed that it would not fix the problems in the river system. The Wentworth Group wanted a minimum 4000 gigalitres of water returned to the river system but the group believed that it would not happen under the draft plan.

In June 2011, a federal parliamentary committee (chaired by independent Tony Windsor) delivered its report to the Murray-Darling Basin Authority and its recommendations on water cutbacks in the basin. The committee was told river communities faced annihilation if 4,000 gigalitres was returned to the environment. The committee also reported that the health of the river system could be protected without the cuts. The Australian Conservation Foundation says it is disappointed by the report delivered by the inquiry into the Murray-Darling river system. The Australian Conservation Foundation believes that buybacks are the most efficient way to save the basin.

In November 2011, the draft plan was finally released. The plan proposes that 2,750 GL per year be cut from water allocations over a period of seven years.

According to a study by Wentworth Group, the MDBA originally planned to start buying the 2,750 gigalitres of water and to increase groundwater extractions by 2,600 gigalitres at the same time in March 2011. Many of the groundwater is linked to river systems, but the Plan does not count it in the models.:

The Plan does not incorporate in the modelling the impact that increasing groundwater extractions by over 2,600GL will have on surface water flows, many of the groundwater systems in the Basin are linked to river systems. The Plan sets long term diversion limits on the assumption that there is no risk to river health from climate change. —Wentworth Group Statement on the 2011 Draft Murray-Darling Basin Plan

In late May 2012, a revision of the plan was forwarded to state water ministers for review. It did not alter the recommendation to return 2,750 gigalitres of water to the environment by cutting water entitlements.

Following much negotiation between the Commonwealth and State governments and numerous submissions from interested stakeholders and the community,the Basin Plan finally became law in November 2012 and can now be implemented.