Ministerial Council meeting on the Murray Darling Basin Plan

In the lead up to today’s Ministerial Council meeting on the Murray Darling Basin Plan, Environment Victoria Healthy Rivers Campaigner Tyler Rotche said:

“Today’s Ministerial Council meeting is a stark reminder that state governments have failed to meet the most critical deadlines agreed to in the Basin Plan.”

“Basin states were tasked with lowering the amount of water taken from rivers to a sustainable level by 1 July 2019. These obligations of the Basin Plan have been treated with contempt.”

“Minister Lisa Neville has been outspoken on important issues of floodplain harvesting and reckless pumping in the northern Basin, but consistently fails to demand that sustainable diversion limits be achieved on time.”

“This failure has resulted in unnecessary harm to Victorian irrigators and to the environment.”

“When the Darling River system does not meet Murray system demands, added pressure is placed upon the southern catchments. This is pushing the ecological limits of Victorian tributaries to their limit – particularly the Goulburn River.”

“The cheapest, most reliable way to revive the river is to buy-back water from willing sellers. Licences to take water can be repurposed and used for environmental benefits. This means more water flowing down our rivers, over our floodplains and into our wetlands.”

“The next logical step for river communities is deeper investment in health care and education – rather than further engineering works to suck the river dry. We can rethink how best to help river communities thrive, but it starts with keeping the river system alive.”