Blog | 21st Jan, 2025

We've already botched one $13b plan. We can't afford to let another opportunity slip

Australia’s biggest river system – the Murray-Darling basin – has recently been in the news after a group of leading scientists issued a report highlighting how previous governments had botched the $13 billion plan to restore the river basin to health.

The report used 27 indicators to measure the effectiveness of the Basin Plan and concluded that 74 per cent of those measures showed no improvement or a decline in conditions.

And the facts are in plain sight for all to see – fish kills in the Darling, toxic blue-green algae outbreaks, and the dredging resuming at the Murray mouth to keep the mouth from filling with sand.

While the report focused on results over a decade under Coalition governments, we do see some signs of hope following the passing of the Restoring Our Rivers Act in the Federal Parliament at the end of last year.

While acknowledging this failure prior to taking office, it is to the great credit of Tanya Plibersek and the Albanese government, working in mature partnership with the Greens and crossbench senators like David Pocock, Lidia Thorpe and others, that the Restoring our River Act ever passed the Parliament.

That act has given the Murray-Darling a lifeline, with new powers, new guarantees and options for the river system, which together represent the biggest gain for the future of the Murray-Darling in a decade.

An essential change is a new expanded toolkit for securing water for the river system, in particular allowing the federal government to enter the water market and purchase much-needed water directly from willing sellers. While premature to say this has already resulted in significant improvements, Labor has at least started to write the next chapter in the Murray-Darling Basin plan to restore the river system to health.

There are expanded powers for the Inspector-General of Water Compliance and long overdue reforms to the water market. Through the Senate, the act was strengthened further to guarantee water delivery, extra investment in the health of the upper Murrumbidgee, to give the ability to cancel infrastructure projects that are clearly unviable, and boost funding for Aboriginal water rights and cultural flows.

That last point is crucial because despite there being over 50 First Nations across the casin, they currently own less than 0.2 per cent of the water. Even the government’s $100 million for Aboriginal water rights represents a tiny portion of the estimated $30 billion value of water across just the southern half of the Murray-Darling Basin.

Another critical piece of the puzzle has been advanced with the release by the Murray-Darling Basin Authority of a roadmap to address the many constraints that prevent environmental water spilling over the riverbank into the myriad of backwaters, creeks, billabongs and wetlands that are home to much of the fish, birds and other creatures of the Murray-Darling.

While the government has been issuing tenders to purchase water for the environment again, the additional water to be returned is still only a trickle, and nowhere near enough to restore the depleted river system.

At present there are new proposals for around 100 gigalitres of water to be returned to wetlands and wildlife, less than 25 per cent of the 450GL expected to be delivered through the plan, but still a massive step forward from the 5 per cent that was delivered over the previous 10 years of Coalition governments.

If they are to really get the basin plan back on track, Labor will need to do more than make up the Coalition’s lost ground. That will mean delivering the existing basin plan on time, and setting their sights higher: more water for rivers, making sure it can flow the the places they need it, and redressing the legacy of colonisation.

The government Australians elect this year will have critical decisions to make as we approach the 2027 deadline for recovering water and completing the first ever rewrite of the Murray-Darling Basin Plan. This will be a once-in-a-generation opportunity to secure the health of our nation’s greatest river system, but missing that chance would almost certainly lock in terminal decline.

  • Craig Wilkins is national director of the Murray-Darling Conservation Alliance.