One year on, Restoring Our Rivers Act revives hope for a healthier Murray-Darling

A year since the passing of the Restoring Our Rivers Act in the federal Parliament, leading Australian conservation groups said today the new legislation has revived hope that Australia’s biggest river system can have a healthier future.

The Murray-Darling Conservation Alliance, which represents close to half a million supporters across all Basin states, said restoring a healthy Murray-Darling Basin is an enormous task that requires persistent effort over time.

“After a decade of delays and missed opportunities, the recovery of rivers and wetlands that should have occurred by now, has not happened,” said Craig Wilkins, National Director of the Murray Darling Conservation Alliance.

This tragic failure has been laid bare by a new research paper by 12 of the country’s top environment and water policy experts , “Murky waters running clearer? Monitoring, reporting and evaluation of the state of the Murray–Darling Basin after more than three decades of policy reform,” that on Monday will be published online in the journal Marine and Freshwater Research.

“Thankfully, on coming to office, Water Minister Tanya Plibersek acknowledged this failure and began a repair job of mammoth proportions. As a result, we are once again seeing signs of progress,” said Mr Wilkins.

“But we have a long way to go, and having lost a decade, we have no time to lose and cannot afford any further setbacks.

“The Restoring Our Rivers Act, passed one year ago, was a significant down payment on Australia’s biggest ever nature restoration effort.

“The government Australians elect next 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.

“Ahead of the federal election we call on all sides of politics to commit to delivering a nature positive Basin Plan in the next term of parliament.”