tag:theconversation.com,2011:/africa/topics/murray-darling-basin-plan-49902/articlesMurray Darling Basin Plan – The Conversation2023-11-27T04:12:56Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2170022023-11-27T04:12:56Z2023-11-27T04:12:56ZThe government’s Murray-Darling bill is a step forward, but still not enough<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/561714/original/file-20231126-21-rluebs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=4%2C0%2C3058%2C2032&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/sunrise-on-murray-river-near-kingstononmurray-1207917046">Philip Schubert, Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>This week, the Senate is debating changes to Australia’s most important water laws. These changes seek to rescue the ailing A$13 billion Murray-Darling Basin Plan to improve the health of our nation’s largest river system. </p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Bills_Legislation/Bills_Search_Results/Result?bId=r7076">Water Amendment (Restoring Our Rivers) Bill 2023</a> is a crucial step forward. It proposes to lift the Coalition-era cap on water buybacks, allowing the federal government to recover more water for the environment through the voluntary purchase of water entitlements from irrigators.</p>
<p>It also proposes to extend the deadlines for the many beleaguered water-offsetting projects put forward by state governments.</p>
<p>Through the Wentworth Group of Concerned Scientists – an independent group working to secure the long-term health of Australia’s land, water and biodiversity – we strive to restore river health for the basin’s communities, industries and ecosystems. Here we ask whether the bill can fulfil the Albanese government’s <a href="https://anthonyalbanese.com.au/media-centre/labors-plan-to-future-proof-australias-water-resources-butler">2022 election promise</a> to deliver the plan.</p>
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<h2>Securing support of the Greens and crossbenchers</h2>
<p>The bill is central to Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s <a href="https://anthonyalbanese.com.au/media-centre/labors-plan-to-future-proof-australias-water-resources-butler">five-point election promise</a> to deliver the plan, and Federal Water Minister Tanya Plibersek’s <a href="https://www.tanyaplibersek.com/media/media-releases/media-release-plibersek-decade-of-liberal-national-sabotage-puts-murray-darling-basin-plan-behind/">subsequent commitment</a> to implement the Murray-Darling Basin Plan in full.</p>
<p>With the Coalition <a href="https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Bills_Legislation/Bills_Search_Results/Result?bId=r7076">voting against the bill</a> in the lower house, the federal government <a href="https://minister.dcceew.gov.au/plibersek/media-releases/joint-media-release-strengthening-restoring-our-rivers-bill">secured the support</a> of the Greens with measures that considerably strengthen the bill.</p>
<p>It is now up to key crossbench Senators to secure passage through parliament. But they have said the bill doesn’t go far enough, citing serious concerns it <a href="https://www.lidiathorpe.com/mr_water_legislation">excludes First Nations water rights and interests</a> and <a href="https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Committees/Senate/Environment_and_Communications/MDBAWaterBill2023/Report">ignores climate change</a>.</p>
<p>The federal government must pass the bill in the next two sitting weeks to avoid triggering a statutory deadline, after which unfinished water offset projects would be cancelled and water recovery would be required instead.</p>
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<a href="https://theconversation.com/labors-new-murray-darling-basin-plan-deal-entrenches-water-injustice-for-first-nations-212261">Labor’s new Murray-Darling Basin Plan deal entrenches water injustice for First Nations</a>
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<h2>Water Act and Basin Plan: where are we at?</h2>
<p>Born of the crisis of the Millennium drought, the Water Act 2007 was announced by the Howard government to “<a href="https://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/howards-full-speech-to-the-national-press-club/news-story/cfd6aa4761027929545602a96dc04254">once and for all</a>” address over-allocation of water in the Murray-Darling Basin.</p>
<p>Five years later, the Basin Plan 2012 was established to recover 3,200 billion litres of water for the environment from other uses, or to implement projects that deliver “equivalent” outcomes. That includes securing 450 billion litres for the health of the River Murray, Coorong and Lower Lakes.</p>
<p>But this volume of water fell substantially short of the Murray-Darling Basin Authority’s best estimate of what was needed to “<a href="http://www6.austlii.edu.au/cgi-bin/viewdoc/au/legis/cth/consol_act/wa200783/s3.html">ensure the return to environmentally sustainable levels of extraction</a>”, and did not take climate change into account.</p>
<p>All water recovery targets were expected to be met by June 2024. But while some progress has been made, water recovery has <a href="https://wentworthgroup.org/2017/11/review-of-water-reform-in-the-murray-darling-basin/">almost stalled</a> in the past decade.</p>
<p>Only <a href="https://www.dcceew.gov.au/water/policy/mdb/progress-recovery">26 billion litres have been recovered</a> of the crucial 450 billion litres. </p>
<p>Of the 36 water offset projects meant to be operational by 2024, <a href="https://www.mdba.gov.au/sites/default/files/publications/2023-sdlam-annual-assurance-report.pdf">16 are not likely to be complete</a>, contributing to a likely shortfall of between 190 billion and 315 billion litres.</p>
<p>No onground work has commenced to alleviate flow “constraints”, leaving thousands of hectares of floodplain forests in the River Murray disconnected from their channels and at risk of drying out and dying.</p>
<p>The Water Act and the plan <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-11-14/lawyers-academics-first-nations-rights-murray-darling-basin-plan/103098066">do not provide for First Nations people’s water rights and interests</a>. And they <a href="https://openresearch-repository.anu.edu.au/bitstream/1885/67496/2/01_Pittock_The_Murray-Darling_Basin_Plan_2015.pdf">fail to deal with climate change</a>.</p>
<p>Reforms to both the legislation and the plan are desperately needed to address these major shortcomings.</p>
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<a href="https://theconversation.com/murray-darling-basin-plan-to-be-extended-under-a-new-agreement-without-victoria-but-an-uphill-battle-lies-ahead-212002">Murray-Darling Basin Plan to be extended under a new agreement, without Victoria – but an uphill battle lies ahead</a>
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<h2>Voluntary buybacks are necessary</h2>
<p>The new bill represents a clear step towards the first of the Albanese government’s <a href="https://anthonyalbanese.com.au/media-centre/labors-plan-to-future-proof-australias-water-resources-butler">five-point promises</a> to “deliver on water commitments” by removing the cap on buybacks.</p>
<p>Without buybacks, it is unlikely the federal government will be able to deliver the 3,200 billion-litre plan in full.</p>
<p>While the <a href="https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Committees/Senate/Environment_and_Communications/MDBAWaterBill2023/Report">Senate Committee</a> acknowledged the impacts of buybacks on communities, the committee found some concerns were “overinflated and not supported by the high-quality evidence base”, referring to a <a href="https://www.mdba.gov.au/sites/default/files/publications/mdb-outlook-economic-literature-review2.pdf">literature review</a>.</p>
<p>The Wentworth Group has <a href="https://wentworthgroup.org/2010/06/sustainable-diversions-in-the-murray-darling-basin/">long argued</a> for funding to establish a regional transition fund to support impacted communities through these reforms. As part of these reforms, “significant transitional assistance” was <a href="https://minister.dcceew.gov.au/plibersek/speeches/speech-introducing-restoring-our-rivers-bill">announced</a> by Plibersek.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/water-buybacks-are-back-on-the-table-in-the-murray-darling-basin-heres-a-refresher-on-how-they-work-200529">Water buybacks are back on the table in the Murray-Darling Basin. Here's a refresher on how they work</a>
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<h2>Statutory guarantees are needed</h2>
<p>The bill requires <a href="https://wentworthgroup.org/2023/10/submission-to-senate_inquiry_water_amendment_bill_2023/">additional measures</a> to guarantee the unfinished business to which parliament agreed more than a decade ago:</p>
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<li><p><strong>a legally binding 450 billion litre water recovery target</strong>. The public needs a legal recourse if governments fail to deliver the full volume. We understand the intent of today’s <a href="https://minister.dcceew.gov.au/plibersek/media-releases/joint-media-release-strengthening-restoring-our-rivers-bill">announcement</a> is to make the target a statutory requirement, in line with other water recovery targets under the plan.</p></li>
<li><p><strong>improved integrity of the water offset method and withdrawal of unviable water offset projects</strong> The <a href="https://minister.dcceew.gov.au/plibersek/media-releases/joint-media-release-strengthening-restoring-our-rivers-bill">agreement</a> reached today allows the Commonwealth to remove non-viable projects. <a href="https://www.publish.csiro.au/mf/Fulltext/MF22082">Significant flaws</a> in the method used to calculate water offsets still need to be addressed. </p></li>
<li><p><strong>milestones in the bill’s proposed “constraints roadmap”</strong> which specify targets linked to incentive payments.</p></li>
<li><p><strong>transparency and accountability measures</strong> to restore public confidence in water reform, such as whole-of-basin hydrological modelling, water accounting and auditing, and validation of annual permitted take models. </p></li>
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<p>Several of these measures were <a href="https://minister.dcceew.gov.au/plibersek/media-releases/joint-media-release-strengthening-restoring-our-rivers-bill">announced today</a>. We’re yet to see details but the high-level agreement is encouraging.</p>
<h2>Urgent reforms can’t wait to 2027</h2>
<p>Australia’s water laws have <a href="https://theconversation.com/labors-new-murray-darling-basin-plan-deal-entrenches-water-injustice-for-first-nations-212261">failed to address</a> the rights and interests of Indigenous people. Indigenous peoples <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0264837719319799">own a mere 0.2%</a> of surface water entitlements in the Murray-Darling Basin.</p>
<p>In 2022, the Albanese government <a href="https://anthonyalbanese.com.au/media-centre/labors-plan-to-future-proof-australias-water-resources-butler">committed</a> to “increasing First Nations ownership of water entitlements and participation in decision making”.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Committees/Senate/Environment_and_Communications/MDBAWaterBill2023/Report">Senate Committee</a> found “overwhelming support […] that significantly more needs to be done to incorporate the values and interests of First Nations people in Basin Plan management”.</p>
<p>Many solutions can be readily incorporated into the bill. It should be amended so the legislation is consistent with the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, and recommendations of Indigenous organisations, such as the Murray-Lower Darling Rivers Indigenous Nations.</p>
<p>The $100 million <a href="https://minister.dcceew.gov.au/plibersek/media-releases/joint-media-release-strengthening-restoring-our-rivers-bill">announced</a> today for the Aboriginal Water Entitlement Program is welcome, although much was already <a href="https://www.tonyburke.com.au/media-releases/2019/5/6/media-release-labornbspwillnbspget-the-basin-plan-back-on-tracknbsp">committed</a> and the remainder won’t make up for the lost value given entitlement prices, according to <a href="https://mldrin.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/WEB_20230829-MLDRIN-Slide-Deck-FINAL-STC.pdf">analysis</a> commissioned by the Murray-Lower Darling Rivers Indigenous Nations.</p>
<p>The bill also needs to provide greater clarity for basin communities on how climate change will be incorporated into the Basin Plan review, and strategies for adapting to climate change. This cannot wait until 2027 – communities need to prepare now for their future.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/victorias-plans-for-engineered-wetlands-on-the-murray-are-environmentally-dubious-heres-a-better-option-204116">Victoria’s plans for engineered wetlands on the Murray are environmentally dubious. Here’s a better option</a>
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<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/217002/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Celine Steinfeld is Director of the Wentworth Group of Concerned Scientists.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Michael Vanderzee is a Water Policy Analyst with the Wentworth Group of Concerned Scientists. He is a former water policy adviser to the Victorian goverment with more than 12 years experience in national and Murray-Darling Basin water reform.</span></em></p>With the support of the Greens, there’s a chance the ‘Restoring Our Rivers’ Bill will pass. Will it be enough to put the Murray-Darling Basin Plan back on track?Celine Steinfeld, Director, Wentworth Group of Concerned Scientists & Adjunct Lecturer, UNSW SydneyMichael Vanderzee, Australian National UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2031422023-11-13T02:49:40Z2023-11-13T02:49:40ZMurray-Darling water buybacks won’t be enough if we can’t get water to where it’s needed<p>When it was clear the Murray-Darling Basin Plan could not be completed on time, Federal Water Minister Tanya Plibersek <a href="https://minister.dcceew.gov.au/plibersek/media-releases/historic-deal-struck-guarantee-future-murray-darling-basin">announced a new agreement</a> (without Victoria) to deliver in full the plan’s aim of restoring the health of this vast river system.</p>
<p>The new agreement required changes to the Water Act to allow more water for the environment to be purchased from irrigators (<a href="https://theconversation.com/water-buybacks-are-back-on-the-table-in-the-murray-darling-basin-heres-a-refresher-on-how-they-work-200529">water buybacks</a>). Concerns about these changes prompted a Senate inquiry. </p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Tabled_Documents/4142">report</a> from that inquiry, released on Friday, <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/rural/2023-11-10/murray-darling-senate-inquiry-more-offset-project-scrutiny/103084420">supports buybacks</a> but also makes key recommendations to remove “constraints” to water delivery. These are physical constraints or limits to the movement of water through the river system. Managers can only deliver so much water before it spills out of the river onto private land. </p>
<p>The report goes so far as to ask whether constraints should be removed before more water is recovered. This is a question we have been asking in our research. And our results suggest the answer is yes.</p>
<p>Currently, we cannot physically deliver all of the water recovered from other uses for the environment (known as <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/B9780128039076000012">environmental water</a>) to where it’s needed without flooding private property along the way. And the government is not prepared to do that. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/murray-darling-basin-plan-to-be-extended-under-a-new-agreement-without-victoria-but-an-uphill-battle-lies-ahead-212002">Murray-Darling Basin Plan to be extended under a new agreement, without Victoria – but an uphill battle lies ahead</a>
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<h2>Basin health is improving but challenges remain</h2>
<p>Under the <a href="https://www.mdba.gov.au/water-management/basin-plan">Basin Plan</a>, about 20% of water used for irrigation a decade ago is now used for environmental purposes. This has improved river health, encouraging fish to spawn and plants to grow, and reduced salt levels in the Lower Lakes and Coorong. </p>
<p>These benefits rely on the river’s <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/1313099">flow regime</a>, not just the annual volume. Higher flows inundate wetlands, move sediment down the river, and provide natural triggers for various species to breed or migrate. </p>
<p>But raising water levels in the river channel isn’t enough to get environmental water everywhere it’s needed. Sometimes larger flows are required. Unfortunately, sending more water down the river runs the risk of inundating private property or damaging infrastructure such as low-lying pumps on floodplains. </p>
<p>Restoring the river’s health requires not only recovering water but also completing projects that allow more of this water to flow despite physical constraints such as a narrow stretch of river. These <a href="https://www.dcceew.gov.au/water/policy/mdb/policy/sdl-adjustment-mechanism">projects</a> might involve modifying or improving infrastructure such as low-lying roads and bridges, as well as working with communities to limit damage and compensate for flooding of private property.</p>
<p>The Senate inquiry report highlights the challenges for these projects. It also supports improving the approach to delivering these projects across the southern basin. </p>
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<h2>Challenges, priorities and solutions may differ</h2>
<p><a href="https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fenvs.2021.789206/full">Our research</a> on the Goulburn River in Victoria’s part of the Murray-Darling Basin shows recovery of additional water for the environment does not guarantee environmental outcomes. </p>
<p>This is because the amount of water that can be sent down the river is constrained. So having more environmental water at your disposal does not help, because it is physically impossible to get all the water to where it is needed, when it is needed, without risking inundation of private property.</p>
<p>Current river system operations, including rules and physical constraints, prevent the full volume of environmental water held in Goulburn River being delivered at the right time and in the right way to achieve the best environmental outcomes.</p>
<p>Narrow sections of the river and adjacent private development limit releases from Lake Eildon. River managers are not allowed to deliberately inundate the floodplain if it risks private property. </p>
<p>So the volume of environmental water available in the Goulburn River is not the issue – delivering this water is the challenge. In this regard, <a href="https://theconversation.com/murray-darling-basin-plan-to-be-extended-under-a-new-agreement-without-victoria-but-an-uphill-battle-lies-ahead-212002">Victoria’s refusal</a> to sign up to the new basin deal is understandable, because more water buybacks would potentially cause more pain to the local community than gain to the local environment. </p>
<p>However, neither Victoria nor New South Wales has addressed these capacity constraint issues, significantly limiting the ability to get better environmental outcomes with less water. So the challenge is much more complex than simply redistributing entitlements and buying back environmental water. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/water-buybacks-are-back-on-the-table-in-the-murray-darling-basin-heres-a-refresher-on-how-they-work-200529">Water buybacks are back on the table in the Murray-Darling Basin. Here's a refresher on how they work</a>
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<h2>The elephant in the room: climate change</h2>
<p>Temperature, rainfall and streamflow have already changed in parts of the Murray-Darling Basin. Over the coming decade these changes will become more pronounced, <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S002216942300313X">widespread and entrenched</a>, causing more frequent floods and droughts. </p>
<p>While the precise consequences for water availability remain to be seen, the impact on the basin will be immense. </p>
<p>But climate change simply adds to the need to have difficult conversations around the future of communities along the Murray-Darling. Focusing on whether buyback targets have been achieved does not resolve this. In many regions, there will not be enough water, with or without buybacks, to achieve <a href="https://cdn.environment.sa.gov.au/environment/docs/6.8.1-Preliminary-adaptation-pathways-for-the-Coorong-Lower-Lakes-and-Murray-Mouth.pdf">current management objectives</a>. </p>
<p>Buybacks should be placed in the context of this imminent threat. In rivers like the Goulburn, addressing capacity constraints provides the <a href="https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fenvs.2021.789206/full">single best climate adaptation option</a> to improve environmental outcomes in the short and medium term. </p>
<p>Removing these constraints would allow more water onto the lower Goulburn River floodplain, with due care for land and infrastructure that could be affected. For example, projects may offer landholders <a href="https://www.gbcma.vic.gov.au/our-region/waterway-floodplain-management/waterways/constraints-management-strategy">options to avoid or compensate for any water damage and associated costs</a>. </p>
<p>This is because removing constraints gives river managers more flexibility, which can increase the resilience of the environment to a wider range of future climates. More water from buybacks provides very limited additional benefit because it doesn’t change how environmental water can be delivered. </p>
<p>The senate report emphasises the need to embed consideration of climate change in the Water Act and Basin Plan. The decisions we are making now on water recovery and constraints relaxation will have big impacts on communities.</p>
<p>Our work shows considering climate change is essential to ensuring lasting benefits and resilient outcomes for the rivers and communities that rely on them.</p>
<p>The first basin plan took a big step towards sustainable management of the vast Murray-Darling river system. But it was always meant to be the first step in an adaptive policy process. Priorities and solutions will look different across the basin. We need a holistic approach where buybacks may very well be part of the solution, but are not the whole solution. We also need to ensure we can deliver this water where and when the environment needs it. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/victorias-plans-for-engineered-wetlands-on-the-murray-are-environmentally-dubious-heres-a-better-option-204116">Victoria’s plans for engineered wetlands on the Murray are environmentally dubious. Here’s a better option</a>
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<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/203142/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Avril Horne receives funding from the Victorian Government Department of Energy, Environment and Climate Action.
Avril has recently been appointed as a member of the Murray-Darling Basin Authority Advisory Committee on Social Economic and Environmental Sciences.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Andrew John receives funding from the Victorian Government Department of Energy, Environment and Climate Action. </span></em></p>Buying back water from irrigators across the Murray-Darling Basin will not be enough to restore river health because we have big problems getting this ‘environmental water’ to where it’s needed most.Avril Horne, Research fellow, Department of Infrastructure Engineering, The University of MelbourneAndrew John, Research fellow, The University of MelbourneLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2172802023-11-09T09:37:22Z2023-11-09T09:37:22ZGrattan on Friday: When Labor states don’t dance to the Albanese government’s tune<p>It’s helpful for the Albanese government to have all mainland states in Labor hands – but only up to a point. </p>
<p>This week we’ve seen the Queensland government bite back at federal plans to curb the national infrastructure program, while Victorian resistance to changes to the Murray-Darling water plan prompted Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek to lash out. </p>
<p>Infrastructure is always a vexed issue. The program is full of pork barrelling, whoever is in power. Even when that’s not involved, what to build and when it should be built is often contested. </p>
<p>In May, the government announced a 90-day review of the $120 billion infrastructure pipeline it inherited from the Coalition.</p>
<p>Infrastructure Minister Catherine King said projects had increased from about 150 to 800. The government’s aim was to reduce the number of projects (many of them small) and rearrange priorities.</p>
<p>High inflation, cost overruns and shortages of labour and materials are plaguing the program.</p>
<p>The political difficulties of abolishing or changing projects, often involving negotiation with states and territories, are obvious enough. Now they have become significantly worse. </p>
<p>The government has received its stocktake, and Treasurer Jim Chalmers says the overall cost of the program has blown out by some $33 billion. </p>
<p>Also, <a href="https://www.imf.org/en/News/Articles/2023/10/31/cs103123-australia-staff-concluding-statement-of-the-2023-article-iv#:%7E:text=Australia's%20economy%20has%20been%20resilient,after%20a%20correction%20in%202022.">an International Monetary Fund report</a> last week said infrastructure projects should be rolled out at a “more measured and co-ordinated pace, given supply constraints, to alleviate inflationary pressures”.</p>
<p>Chalmers is pushing this message, but it’s not being received well in Queensland. </p>
<p>State Treasurer Cameron Dick was blunt. “Queensland is Australia’s growth state and we need more infrastructure, not less,” <a href="https://twitter.com/camerondickqld/status/1720977443337691323">he said in a tweet</a>. “If infrastructure cuts are needed, they should be made to southern states with low growth and high debt.” (Fun fact: the electorate offices of Queenslanders Chalmers and Dick share a common wall.)</p>
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<p><a href="https://www.couriermail.com.au/news/queensland/qld-politics/road-rail-projects-need-to-be-cut-to-take-heat-out-of-inflation-treasurer/news-story/a99b728bdff427ae13cb879700b19ed1">Queensland Police Minister Mark Ryan said</a>:</p>
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<p>I’ve got a clear message for Jim. Jim’s a mate of mine. Jim, those projects better not be in Queensland.</p>
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<p>The last thing the Palaszczuk government wants is for projects to be cancelled, slashed or delayed. It is in a particularly precarious position – it faces an election in a year’s time and will be fighting for survival.</p>
<p>Queensland has an obvious political self-interest in resisting infrastructure cuts, but there’s a national point too. With large numbers of migrants coming into Australia, the demand for transport and other infrastructure will be increasing, rather than decreasing. Whatever cuts and slowdowns are made will need to be well judged. </p>
<p>The federal government argues the existing pipeline is unrealistic and without change could not be delivered anyway. But even if the decisions about what to cut, scale back or defer are economically sound, in political terms they could store up electoral time bombs for the government. </p>
<p>Even minor and unworthy projects can be sensitive in marginal seats. Scrapping them could open opportunities for the opposition. Also, available funds for new projects presumably will be limited. </p>
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<a href="https://theconversation.com/grattan-on-friday-transport-minister-catherine-king-struggles-to-find-a-landing-strip-amid-qatar-turbulence-213076">Grattan on Friday: Transport Minister Catherine King struggles to find a landing strip amid Qatar turbulence</a>
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<p>When the government finishes its negotiations with the states and the outcomes are announced, King will be the main minister defending the decisions. </p>
<p>As we saw in the row over the rejection of Qatar Airways’ bid for extra flights, she struggles when under pressure. She could find the task challenging. </p>
<p>The fight over the government’s water changes centre on its planned amendments to the Murray-Darling Basin plan. </p>
<p>The legislation, soon to be considered by the Senate, broadens the activities that can be funded and extends the times for delivery of water-recovery projects. Most importantly, it removes the cap on the federal government’s “buybacks” of extra water for the environment. </p>
<p>The Murray-Darling plan is always fraught, because the interests of upstream and downstream users and their governments differ. Nevertheless, Queensland, South Australia and New South Wales have signed on – although NSW has done so reluctantly. </p>
<p>But Victoria, where the Andrews government has built a close relationship with irrigators, has held out, defending its position on the basis of work done by Frontier Economics. </p>
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<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/grattan-on-friday-cost-of-living-crisis-is-the-dragon-the-government-cant-slay-216441">Grattan on Friday: Cost-of-living crisis is the dragon the government can't slay</a>
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<p>Its report argues that “previous water recovery has resulted in less irrigation […] putting the viability of major irrigation districts and the industries and communities they support under pressure”.</p>
<p>“Further water recovery from irrigators (buybacks and on-farm projects) will add to the impacts already being felt and undermine the ability of irrigation communities to plan for the future.”</p>
<p>Plibersek declared, <a href="https://www.tanyaplibersek.com/media/transcripts/abc-radio-national-breakfast-with-patricia-karvelas/">in an interview with the ABC</a>, that it was “extraordinary that we’ve got a Labor government using dodgy modelling to join up with Barnaby Joyce and David Littleproud”. </p>
<p>Victoria’s Water Minister Harriet Shing retorts: “This isn’t about party politics, and it’s disappointing to see it framed that way. We don’t apologise for standing up for Victorian communities and environments.”</p>
<p>But Plibersek has backing from Jamie Pittock, from the Australian National University’s Fenner School of Environment and Society. He says: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>The Victorian government can usually be relied on to make decisions based on solid data. In the case of the Murray-Darling Basin, bizarrely, it has relied on low-quality consultants’ reports that exaggerate the socio-economic costs and ignore the benefits from water buybacks.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The legislation will come to a vote in the Senate this year, and there will be wrangling with the crossbench. </p>
<p>Assuming the legislation passes, the federal government can override Victoria and proceed with the buybacks of water for the environment. But it will still face the opposition of farming and irrigator groups, and some local communities. </p>
<p>It would be hard to find political observers who believe Peter Dutton can win the next election, due by May 2025. But there is increasing talk about the possibility that Labor, given it has a very narrow majority, could find itself in minority government. (Contrast a year ago, when all the talk was about Labor’s prospects for increasing its majority.)</p>
<p>Being pushed into minority is something Albanese – a senior figure in the minority Gillard government – would want to avoid at all costs. It would hamper the government’s flexibility to pursue its program, mean constant negotiation with crossbenchers including bolshie Greens, and encourage the Coalition to run maximum disruption. </p>
<p>The challenge of keeping out of minority increases the importance of the “ground game” in Labor’s marginal electorates. And it could make controversies over local issues – scrapped infrastructure projects, or unpopular new ventures including ugly transmission lines for renewable energy – potentially dangerous for the incumbents in those seats.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/217280/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Michelle Grattan does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Infrastructure is always a vexed issue. The program is full of pork barrelling, whoever is in power. Even when that’s not involved, what to build and when it should be built is often contested.Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of CanberraLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2122612023-08-31T20:00:20Z2023-08-31T20:00:20ZLabor’s new Murray-Darling Basin Plan deal entrenches water injustice for First Nations<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/545685/original/file-20230831-15-aututx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=55%2C96%2C4561%2C3371&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Erin O’Donnell</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The federal government has struck a new <a href="https://www.dcceew.gov.au/sites/default/files/documents/agreement-mdbp-delivery-full.pdf">deal</a> with most of the states in the nation’s largest river system. The agreement, announced last week, extends the $13 billion 2012 Murray-Darling Basin Plan to rebalance water allocated to the environment, irrigators and other uses. </p>
<p>Environment and Water Minister Tanya Plibersek said the government has:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>negotiated a way to ensure there is secure and reliable water for communities, agriculture, industry, First Nations and the environment.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>But there is no mention of water for First Nations in the agreement. This follows a history of Indigenous peoples being shortchanged by Murray-Darling Basin planning. Yet again, this latest deal ignores First Nations’ interests, despite millennia of <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/first-nations-call-on-government-to-end-water-rights-drought-20210107-p56sg4.html">custodianship</a>. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/murray-darling-basin-plan-to-be-extended-under-a-new-agreement-without-victoria-but-an-uphill-battle-lies-ahead-212002">Murray-Darling Basin Plan to be extended under a new agreement, without Victoria – but an uphill battle lies ahead</a>
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<h2>Shortchanged in reforms</h2>
<p>The <a href="https://www.mdba.gov.au/water-management/basin-plan">Murray-Darling Basin Plan</a> was agreed in 2012 to try and improve the health of the largest and most complex river system in Australia. </p>
<p>It was a historic compromise that sought to address the often conflicting demands of states, irrigators and the environment. But the plan <a href="https://theconversation.com/aboriginal-voices-are-missing-from-the-murray-darling-basin-crisis-110769">overlooked First Nations rights</a> to own, manage and control water on Country. The plan’s current provisions include only <a href="https://research-repository.griffith.edu.au/handle/10072/409545">weak requirements</a> for governments to “have regard to” First Nations values and uses. </p>
<p>In 2018 the Turnbull government put $40 million on the table for First Nations. This deal offered a <a href="https://theconversation.com/deal-on-murray-darling-basin-plan-could-make-history-for-indigenous-water-rights-96264">glimmer of hope</a> as it saw the then water minister David Littleproud and Labor water spokesperson Tony Burke commit the funds to support Basin First Nations’ investment in cultural and economic water entitlements.</p>
<p>But despite Labor renewing the commitment as part of its 2022 election platform, the <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-04-29/first-nations-groups-urge-progress-on-water-delivery/102273040">money remains with government and has not been spent</a>. Last week, Plibersek <a href="https://minister.dcceew.gov.au/plibersek/transcripts/press-conference-sydney-minister-environment-and-water-tanya-plibersek-0">said</a> that when Labor came into government there was “very little work done about how this might happen”, and that “it is proceeding”. </p>
<p>A commitment of $40 million is also a paltry amount in the context of the wider river basin. Water research firm Aither’s 2023 <a href="https://aither.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/2022-23-Water-Markets-Report.pdf">Water Market Report</a> estimates the total value of water entitlements in the southern basin as $32.3 billion, so the government commitment of $40 million is only 0.1% of the total. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/545687/original/file-20230831-15-5k9rfn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Aerial view of Brewarrina historical Aboriginal fish traps on the Barwon River in the far north west of New South Wales." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/545687/original/file-20230831-15-5k9rfn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/545687/original/file-20230831-15-5k9rfn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/545687/original/file-20230831-15-5k9rfn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/545687/original/file-20230831-15-5k9rfn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/545687/original/file-20230831-15-5k9rfn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/545687/original/file-20230831-15-5k9rfn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/545687/original/file-20230831-15-5k9rfn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">The heritage-listed stone Brewarrina fish traps on the Barwon River, which feeds into the Darling River.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/brewarrina-historical-aboriginal-fish-traps-on-1820794748">John Carnemolla, Shutterstock</a></span>
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<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/water-injustice-runs-deep-in-australia-fixing-it-means-handing-control-to-first-nations-155286">Water injustice runs deep in Australia. Fixing it means handing control to First Nations</a>
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<h2>Shortchanged in the market</h2>
<p>First Nations organisations have maintained pressure on the federal government and attempted to hold successive ministers to account for <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/betrayal-first-nations-warning-to-government-over-water-fund-pledge-20210505-p57p4u.html">unnecessary delays</a> in delivering the funding. </p>
<p>These delays mean the committed funds are decreasing in value. </p>
<p>When Littleproud initially committed the $40 million, the money was equally split between the northern and southern regions of the basin. Aither <a href="https://mldrin.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/WEB_20230829-MLDRIN-Slide-Deck-FINAL-STC.pdf">analysis</a> conducted for the <a href="https://mldrin.org/">Murray Lower Darling Rivers Indigenous Nations</a> shows at today’s prices, the $20 million for Nations in the southern basin can only buy two-thirds of the water that could have been acquired in 2018. In 2023, buying the same volume of water that could have been purchased in 2018 will cost almost $11 million more.</p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/terra-nullius-has-been-overturned-now-we-must-reverse-aqua-nullius-and-return-water-rights-to-first-nations-people-180037">Terra nullius has been overturned. Now we must reverse aqua nullius and return water rights to First Nations people</a>
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<h2>A fair go: investment and reform needed</h2>
<p>Limited government investment from other sources has supported some Basin First Nations to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/07900627.2020.1867520">develop</a> <a href="https://www.kaiejin.org.au/pdf/Establishing%20a%20Cultural%20Flows%20Model%20on%20Tati%20Tati%20Country">plans</a> that could guide water use, to nourish their Country, maintain culture, and generate <a href="https://law.unimelb.edu.au/centres/creel/research/current-research-projects/cultural-water-for-cultural-economies">sustainable livelihoods</a>.</p>
<p>However, realising these opportunities means they need water. In an overallocated river system, amid water scarcity and rising prices, this requires genuine political will coupled with necessary reforms and adequate funding.</p>
<p>As another drought looms, and water entitlement prices remain high, more than 40 Basin Nations must share very limited funding that can only acquire a tiny – and diminishing – fraction of their water needs. These deals demonstrate sustained and systemic bipartisan political indifference to First Nations’ inherent rights. </p>
<p>If Plibersek is sincere about delivering “secure and reliable water” for First Nations, she must listen to First Nations people, and actually deliver tangible outcomes. Governments must urgently commit adequate funding for First Nations in the basin to secure water that meets our needs, before future generations are priced out of the market forever. </p>
<p>Funding for cultural flows must be coupled with reform to <a href="https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adi0658">transform</a> the <a href="https://theconversation.com/water-injustice-runs-deep-in-australia-fixing-it-means-handing-control-to-first-nations-155286">foundations</a> of water governance and implement the <a href="https://mldrin.org/what-we-do/cultural-flows/">Echuca Declaration</a>. This declaration establishes cultural flows as the “inherent rights” of all First Nations in the Basin. </p>
<p>As a start, the Water Act 2007 needs to be strengthened to enshrine Basin Nations’ authority and ensure their voices are heard. </p>
<p>As the terms of the basin plan <a href="https://www.pc.gov.au/inquiries/current/basin-plan-2023#draft">implementation</a> are being reassessed and renegotiated, governments have an opportunity not only to listen, but also to deal First Nations in.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/212261/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Grant Rigney is a citizen of the Ngarrindjeri Nation and Chair of the Murray Lower Darling Rivers Indigenous Nations (MLDRIN). He is also a member of the Committee on Aboriginal Water Interests and Chair of the Ngarrindjeri Regional Authority. Grant is a member of the Greens Party. MLDRIN receives funding from the Australian, Victorian and NSW governments.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Dr Erin O'Donnell is a settler who lives and works on unceded Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung Country. She is a member of the Birrarung Council, appointed by the Victorian Minister for Water. She receives funding from the Australian Research Council (DE230100622). She has received funding in the past from the state government of Victoria, the Murray Lower Darling Rivers (MLDRIN), the Federation of Victorian Traditional Owner Corporations, the Coalition of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peak Organizations.
</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Fred Hooper is a Murrawarri man from the Murrawarri Nation. Fred is the Chair of the Murrawarri Peoples Council and former Chair of the Northern Basin Aboriginal Nations (NBAN). He is also a member of the Blak Sovereign Movement. NBAN has previously received funding from the federal and state governments. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Dr Lana D. Hartwig is a settler who lives and works on unceded Yugambeh Country. She is employed by Murray Lower Darling Rivers Indigenous Nations (MLDRIN). She has received funding in the past from the Murray-Darling Basin Authority and the Coalition of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peak Organizations.
</span></em></p>Once again, First Nations in the Murray-Darling Basin have been shortchanged in water reform and shortchanged in the water market. It’s time to listen and actually deliver tangible outcomes.Grant Rigney, Indigenous KnowledgeErin O'Donnell, Senior Lecturer, Melbourne Law School, The University of MelbourneFred Hooper, Indigenous knowledge holder, Indigenous KnowledgeLana D. Hartwig, Adjunct Research Fellow, Australian Rivers Institute, Griffith UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2120022023-08-22T09:19:16Z2023-08-22T09:19:16ZMurray-Darling Basin Plan to be extended under a new agreement, without Victoria – but an uphill battle lies ahead<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/543904/original/file-20230822-17-1crsil.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=22%2C33%2C7326%2C4869&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Federal Minister for Water Tanya Plibersek today <a href="https://minister.dcceew.gov.au/plibersek/media-releases/historic-deal-struck-guarantee-future-murray-darling-basin">announced a new agreement</a> to restore Australia’s largest and most important river basin. It comes just months before the original Murray-Darling Basin Plan was to be completed. </p>
<p>This was a plan to benefit people and nature, to protect river communities, industries and the environment against future droughts. It was forged in response to the gruelling <a href="https://www.environment.sa.gov.au/topics/river-murray/dry-conditions/millennium-drought">Millennium Drought</a>, when the Murray River stopped flowing to the sea. </p>
<p>It was clear too much water was being taken out of the system and everyone would suffer if Basin states could not find a better way to share. But it has been much harder to strike the right balance than first hoped. </p>
<p>When it became clear in July it was <a href="https://www.mdba.gov.au/news-and-events/newsroom/authority-advice-basin-plan-implementation">no longer possible</a> to deliver the plan in full and on time, the federal government started hatching a new plan. </p>
<p>Now Plibersek is offering “more time, more money, more options, and more accountability”, acutely aware that “the next drought is just around the corner”. But she faces an uphill battle, with Victoria still holding out. Further, the legislation is yet to go before parliament and needs to be passed before Christmas. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/with-less-than-a-year-to-go-the-murray-darling-basin-plan-is-in-a-dreadful-mess-these-5-steps-are-needed-to-fix-it-209328">With less than a year to go, the Murray-Darling Basin Plan is in a dreadful mess. These 5 steps are needed to fix it</a>
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</p>
<hr>
<h2>How did we get here?</h2>
<p>Management of the Basin rivers today is a far cry from the hope engendered in 2007 when Prime Minister <a href="https://parlinfo.aph.gov.au/parlInfo/search/display/display.w3p;query=Id%3A%22media%2Fpressrel%2FK81M6%22;src1=sm1">John Howard announced</a> the National Plan for Water Security, at the peak of the Millenium Drought.</p>
<p>He proposed reforms to Basin water governance, saying “nothing can change the basic facts of our continent” and calling for action to end “the tyranny of incrementalism and the lowest common denominator” governance. These “once and for all” reforms were intended to prevent “economic and environmental decline”. </p>
<p>But the Basin states were loathe to hand their powers over to the Commonwealth. Victoria and New South Wales resisted reallocating water from agriculture. Amid navigating the complex science and trade offs, it was another five years before the controversial Basin Plan was adopted in 2012.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, the plan then languished over the past decade as the federal, New South Wales and Victorian governments <a href="https://doi.org/10.3390/w14020208">frustrated measures</a> originally agreed to return water from agricultural use to the environment.</p>
<p>This week’s announcement represents the federal government taking firm steps to implement the first part of Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s <a href="https://anthonyalbanese.com.au/media-centre/labors-plan-to-future-proof-australias-water-resources-butler">five-point election commitment</a> for the Basin.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/543906/original/file-20230822-21-1crsil.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="darling river" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/543906/original/file-20230822-21-1crsil.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/543906/original/file-20230822-21-1crsil.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/543906/original/file-20230822-21-1crsil.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/543906/original/file-20230822-21-1crsil.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/543906/original/file-20230822-21-1crsil.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/543906/original/file-20230822-21-1crsil.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/543906/original/file-20230822-21-1crsil.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A plan for the water: the politics of the Murray-Darling Basin have long been fraught.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Now the federal government has reached agreements with most states who share management of the river system – Queensland, New South Wales, the Australian Capital Territory and South Australia – but not Victoria. The Victorian government appears to be rivalling the National Party in its <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/rural/2023-04-20/victorian-government-hold-murray-darling-basin-projects/102247494">opposition</a> to buying more water entitlements from irrigators (water buybacks). </p>
<p>The federal government is looking to purchase water entitlements from willing sellers. This is because past investments in water efficiency projects have proven to be too slow, very expensive and have had unexpected outcomes for agricultural industries and the rivers.</p>
<p>Victoria continues to argue its irrigation-based industries would be harmed by more water buybacks, and that the state has borne an unfair share of the burden compared to New South Wales. The Victorian government has knowledgeable staff and is well resourced, and resistance could be fierce.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/water-buybacks-are-back-on-the-table-in-the-murray-darling-basin-heres-a-refresher-on-how-they-work-200529">Water buybacks are back on the table in the Murray-Darling Basin. Here's a refresher on how they work</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Plibersek appears to be counting on her alliance with other states enabling required amendments to the Water Act and Basin Plan to be passed before Christmas. Given almost certain rejection by the Opposition of more water reallocation, she will require the support of cross bench Senators who may demand stronger environmental measures. The Greens have already <a href="https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/politics/water-buybacks-scare-off-victoria-from-basin-agreement/news-story/882a81acfbb21dbc8631a5a031b6ab28">criticised</a> the minister’s announcement as a move that “kicks the can down the road”, but buying such a large volume of water will take years.</p>
<p>If the legislation is not amended, and existing deadlines remain, the federal government may be forced into <a href="https://www.npc.org.au/speaker/2022/1090-andrew-mcconville">recovering even more water</a>. In particular, they would need to respond to the states’ failure to deliver on projects that are supposed to conserve wetland with less water by building water supply infrastructure.</p>
<h2>A welcome development</h2>
<p>The new agreement is welcome in doubling down on the original plan to recover 3,200 billion litres a year of additional water essential to maintain the health of the rivers and the people who rely on them. The federal government has focused on recovering 450 billion litres a year of water within this target that was agreed with the former South Australian premier. Premier Jay Weatherill drew on scientific advice to insist the minimum volume of water was recovered that is needed to keep the lower River Murray floodplain, lower lakes and Coorong healthy.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, the past decade of stalling by the federal, NSW and Victorian governments means the 2023-24 Basin Plan deadlines must be extended by two to three years if key projects are to be completed.</p>
<p>Much greater public assurance with transparency and accountability measures is needed if the new targets are to be met. The federal government needs to find more effective carrots and sticks to engender state compliance. This time it would be wise to <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/14486563.2014.999725">withhold payments to the states</a> until they deliver the promised action.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/543907/original/file-20230822-21-l2fetn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="murray darling rivers meeting" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/543907/original/file-20230822-21-l2fetn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/543907/original/file-20230822-21-l2fetn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/543907/original/file-20230822-21-l2fetn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/543907/original/file-20230822-21-l2fetn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/543907/original/file-20230822-21-l2fetn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/543907/original/file-20230822-21-l2fetn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/543907/original/file-20230822-21-l2fetn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The muddy waters of the Darling meet the clearer Murray at Wentworth in New South Wales.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The federal government’s intention to redouble efforts to “<a href="https://theconversation.com/with-less-than-a-year-to-go-the-murray-darling-basin-plan-is-in-a-dreadful-mess-these-5-steps-are-needed-to-fix-it-209328">relax constraints</a>” and enable more water to flow to where it’s most needed to conserve flora and fauna is crucial. This is essential to get the most benefits for freshwater ecosystems by allowing environmental water to spill out of river channels onto floodplain wetlands. Despite a recent flurry of activity, NSW and Victoria have not delivered promised agreements with river side land owners to enable this watering.</p>
<p>The one disappointing aspect of the agreement is the proposal to allow more water offset projects (under the <a href="https://getinvolved.mdba.gov.au/SDLAM">Sustainable Diversion Limit Adjustment Mechanism</a>). These ecologically dubious projects have been <a href="https://theconversation.com/victorias-plans-for-engineered-wetlands-on-the-murray-are-environmentally-dubious-heres-a-better-option-204116">problematic</a>, with at least one being abandoned and many delayed. It is inconceivable that new projects could be identified and delivered by 2026.</p>
<p>But the new agreement only deals with the most immediate problems in implementing the Basin Plan. The Plan is due to be revised in 2026. The current measures do not deal with <a href="https://theconversation.com/with-less-than-a-year-to-go-the-murray-darling-basin-plan-is-in-a-dreadful-mess-these-5-steps-are-needed-to-fix-it-209328">two major issues</a>. First, ways need to be found to restore the rights of Indigenous nations to own and manage water. Currently they hold only 0.2% of issued entitlements. Second, a new Plan is needed to manage the project loss of a lot of water to climate and other environmental change.</p>
<p>The federal government’s agreement with most states (but not Victoria) is a really welcome initiative to get Basin Plan implementation back on track. However, even harder decisions await.</p>
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<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/victorias-plans-for-engineered-wetlands-on-the-murray-are-environmentally-dubious-heres-a-better-option-204116">Victoria’s plans for engineered wetlands on the Murray are environmentally dubious. Here’s a better option</a>
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</em>
</p>
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<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/212002/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jamie Pittock is a member of the Wentworth Group of Concerned Scientists. Jamie holds roles in a number of non-government environmental organisations. He is also the independent Chair of the ACT Natural Resources Management Advisory Committee. </span></em></p>Knowing the ‘next drought is just around the corner’, Australia’s Water Minister Tanya Plibersek is striking a new agreement to return water and health to the Murray-Darling Basin.Jamie Pittock, Professor, Fenner School of Environment & Society, Australian National UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2093282023-07-17T20:03:25Z2023-07-17T20:03:25ZWith less than a year to go, the Murray-Darling Basin Plan is in a dreadful mess. These 5 steps are needed to fix it<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/537445/original/file-20230714-15-hsnhzh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=11%2C0%2C2591%2C1724&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The Murray Darling Basin Plan is an historic deal between state and federal governments to save Australia’s most important river system. The A$13 billion plan, inked over a decade ago, was supposed to rein in the water extracted by farmers and communities, and make sure the environment got the water it needed. </p>
<p>But now, less than a year out from the plan’s deadline, it’s in a dreadful mess. Projects have not been delivered. Governments cannot agree on who gets the water, or how. All the while, <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/B9780128181522000127">water</a> in the Murray-Darling Basin will become scarcer as climate change worsens.</p>
<p>The Albanese government was elected on a promise to <a href="https://anthonyalbanese.com.au/media-centre/labors-plan-to-future-proof-australias-water-resources-butler">uphold</a> the Murray-Darling Basin Plan.
But earlier this month, Environment and Water Minister Tanya Plibersek <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/rural/2023-07-05/murray-darling-basin-plan-targets-advice-request-tanya-plibersek/102559824">conceded</a> the plan is “too far behind” and needs a “course correction”.</p>
<p>I have studied and promoted sustainability measures in the Murray-Darling Basin for 35 years. Here, I outline the five steps needed now to ensure the health of the river system and the people who depend on it. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="man overlooks river bend" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/537446/original/file-20230714-23-47mt53.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/537446/original/file-20230714-23-47mt53.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/537446/original/file-20230714-23-47mt53.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/537446/original/file-20230714-23-47mt53.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/537446/original/file-20230714-23-47mt53.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/537446/original/file-20230714-23-47mt53.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/537446/original/file-20230714-23-47mt53.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Water in the Murray Darling Basin will become scarcer as climate change worsens.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>A refresher: what is the Murray-Darling Basin Plan?</h2>
<p>The Murray-Darling Basin covers <a href="https://www.water.vic.gov.au/murray-darling-basin-plan/">about a seventh</a> of the Australian land mass: most of New South Wales, parts of Queensland, South Australia and Victoria, and all of the Australian Capital Territory. It includes the Murray River and Darling River/Baarka and their tributaries. </p>
<p>These lands and waters are the traditional lands of <a href="https://www.indigenous.gov.au/news-and-media/announcements/new-indigenous-rangers-murray-darling-basin">more than 40 Indigenous nations</a>. Around <a href="http://www.publish.csiro.au/paper/MF03075">5% of the basin</a> consists of floodplain forests, lakes, rivers and other wetland habitats. Vast amounts of water are extracted from the rivers to supply around <a href="https://www.mdba.gov.au/why-murray-darling-basin-matters">three million Australians</a>, including irrigating farms. </p>
<p>The Murray-Darling Basin Plan <a href="https://www.water.vic.gov.au/murray-darling-basin-plan/:%7E:text=The%20Basin%20Plan%20was%20signed,needs%20such%20as%20drinking%20water.">became law</a> in 2012, under the Labor government. It is due to be fully implemented and audited by the end of June 2024.</p>
<p>The plan limits the amount of water extracted from the basin. It aims to both improve the condition of freshwater ecosystems and maintain the social and economic benefits of irrigated agriculture.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1569277751542300680"}"></div></p>
<p>Under the plan, <a href="https://www.environment.sa.gov.au/topics/river-murray/basin-plan/whats-in-the-basin-plan/history-of-the-basin-plan#:%7E:text=The%20Australian%20Government%20subsequently%20committed,river%20communities%20and%20environmental%20works.">3,200 billion litres a year</a> would be returned to rivers – about 14% of <a href="https://doi.org/10.4225/08/585ac631207f7">total surface water</a> in the basin. </p>
<p>The water was largely to be recovered by buying back water entitlements from farmers. Some <a href="https://www.environment.sa.gov.au/topics/river-murray/basin-plan/whats-in-the-basin-plan/history-of-the-basin-plan">450 billion litres</a> would be retrieved through water efficiency projects.</p>
<p>The plan has twice been amended to reduce the amount of water taken from farmers. The first change, made on <a href="https://wentworthgroup.org/2018/01/advice-on-basin-plan-amendment-instrument-2017/">questionable grounds</a>, reduced the water recovery target by 70 billion litres a year. The second reduced it by 605 billion litres, with the water to instead be recovered through <a href="https://www.industry.nsw.gov.au/water/basins-catchments/murray-darling/supply-efficiency-measures">36 water-saving offset projects</a>. </p>
<p>Further, the Victorian and NSW governments committed to reaching agreements with farmers to enable water for the environment to safely spill out of river channels and across privately owned floodplains, to replenish more wetlands.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/australia-has-an-ugly-legacy-of-denying-water-rights-to-aboriginal-people-not-much-has-changed-141743">Australia has an ugly legacy of denying water rights to Aboriginal people. Not much has changed</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
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<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="man stands on flooded road" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/536383/original/file-20230708-17-3g0q3m.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/536383/original/file-20230708-17-3g0q3m.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536383/original/file-20230708-17-3g0q3m.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536383/original/file-20230708-17-3g0q3m.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536383/original/file-20230708-17-3g0q3m.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536383/original/file-20230708-17-3g0q3m.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536383/original/file-20230708-17-3g0q3m.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Getting water into floodplain wetlands is crucial for flora and fauna. Pictured: a colleague of the author stands on a road at Tocumwal, NSW, as water inundates the River Murray floodplain.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Jamie Pittock</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>So how’s the plan going?</h2>
<p>Things are not going well. As of November last year, the offset projects were likely to deliver between <a href="https://www.mdba.gov.au/news-and-events/newsroom/address-national-and-rural-press-club">290 and 415 billion litres</a> of the 605 billion litres required. And <a href="https://doi.org/10.1071/MF20172">very little water</a> is getting to floodplains.</p>
<p>And of the 450 billion litres to be retrieved through water-efficiency projects, only 26 billion litres has been <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/rural/2023-07-05/murray-darling-basin-plan-targets-advice-request-tanya-plibersek/102559824">recovered</a>.</p>
<p>It means of the 3,200 billion litres of water a year to be returned to the environment, only <a href="https://www.mdba.gov.au/climate-and-river-health/water-environment/water-recovery/factors-water-recovery/progress-water">2,100 billion litres</a> was being achieved as of March this year – plus the small amount of projected water from offset projects, if it’s delivered. </p>
<p>At a meeting in February this year, the nation’s water ministers <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-02-24/states-fail-to-agree-as-murray-darling-basin-plan-deadline-looms/102018886">failed to agree</a> on how to meet the plan’s deadline.</p>
<p>As governments quibble, the rivers and floodplains of the Murray-Darling suffer. In the past decade, millions of fish have perished in <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-did-millions-of-fish-die-gasping-in-the-darling-after-three-years-of-rain-202125">mass die-offs</a>. <a href="https://www.mdba.gov.au/climate-and-river-health/water-quality/blue-green-algae">Toxic algae</a> has bloomed, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1071/MF21057">wildife</a> and <a href="https://newsroom.unsw.edu.au/news/science-tech/despite-challenging-conditions-thousands-waterbirds-breeding-throughout-nsw">waterbirds</a> have declined in numbers and <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/environment/conservation/this-magnificent-wetland-was-barren-and-bone-dry-three-years-of-rain-brought-it-back-to-life-20221115-p5bydw.html">wetlands</a> have dried up. These are all signs that too much water is still being taken from the system.</p>
<p>So how do we get the basin plan back on track? Below, I identify the top five priorities.</p>
<h2>1. NSW must get its act together on water plans</h2>
<p>Integral to implementing the broader basin plan are 33 “<a href="https://www.mdba.gov.au/water-management/basin-plan/water-resource-plans">water resource plans</a>” devised by the states. These plans bring the basin plan into legal force and detail how much water can be taken from the system and how it is divided between users such as farmers, communities and the environment. </p>
<p>NSW must produce 20 plans. To date, <a href="https://www.mdba.gov.au/water-management/basin-plan/water-resource-plans/list-state-water-resource-plans">just five</a> are in place. <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2023/jun/09/nsw-withdraws-seven-flawed-water-resource-plans-throwing-doubt-on-murray-darling-basin-plan">At least seven plans</a> by NSW were recently withdrawn to be re-drafted. </p>
<p>Until they’re finalised, key measures of the basin plan cannot be implemented. The new NSW Minns government must prioritise the remaining water resource plans and have them accredited by the Commonwealth government. </p>
<h2>2. Federal water buybacks must ramp up</h2>
<p>The Albanese government is taking steps to improve water recovery under the plan, such as <a href="https://consult.dcceew.gov.au/ideas-to-deliver-the-basin-plan">consulting stakeholders</a> and <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-02-22/federal-government-water-buybacks-murray-darling-basin-plan-730/102007496">restarting</a> water buybacks. But it must do more.</p>
<p>Both <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2022/sep/22/murray-darling-basin-plan-on-the-brink-after-nsw-says-it-cannot-meet-water-savings-deadline">NSW</a> and <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2022/sep/23/murray-darling-basin-plan-victoria-will-struggle-to-meet-water-delivery-obligations-by-deadline">Victoria</a> will almost certainly miss the 2024 deadline for delivering all infrastructure projects they promised to offset 605 billion litres of water. </p>
<p>The federal government is legally obliged to – and should – purchase additional water from farmers to cover any gap. It must also acquire more than 400 billion litres of water to make up for the shortfall in water efficiency projects.</p>
<p>For this to occur, a <a href="https://www.dcceew.gov.au/water/policy/mdb/commonwealth-water-mdb">Coalition-era cap</a> must be lifted from 1,500 billion litres to enable more federal government water purchases from farmers.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="machine waters crops" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/537448/original/file-20230714-14892-q74jlj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/537448/original/file-20230714-14892-q74jlj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/537448/original/file-20230714-14892-q74jlj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/537448/original/file-20230714-14892-q74jlj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/537448/original/file-20230714-14892-q74jlj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/537448/original/file-20230714-14892-q74jlj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/537448/original/file-20230714-14892-q74jlj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The federal government must buy more water entitlements from farmers.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>3. Abandon questionable water-saving projects</h2>
<p>At least six water-saving projects look unlikely to meet the deadline. </p>
<p>They include a large project proposed by the former NSW government to reduce evaporation at <a href="https://www.dpie.nsw.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0009/491679/Menindee-Lakes-evaporation-fact-sheet.pdf">Menindee Lakes</a>, which <a href="https://www.theland.com.au/story/7172211/menindee-sdl-project-discussions-suspended/">appears doomed</a>. </p>
<p>Another <a href="https://www.dpie.nsw.gov.au/water/water-infrastructure-nsw/sdlam/yanco-creek-modernisation-project">project at Yanco Creek</a> in NSW has also fallen behind, and four of the nine Victorian projects have been <a href="https://www.weeklytimesnow.com.au/subscribe/news/1/?sourceCode=WTWEB_WRE170_a&dest=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.weeklytimesnow.com.au%2Fnews%2Fwater%2Fshing-halts-floodplain-works-fears-federal-funding-will-be-cut%2Fnews-story%2Fe22a38442f6ab2c7c7f4a5fd0073f996&memtype=anonymous&mode=premium">paused</a>. </p>
<p>What’s more, the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1890/130259">ecological merit</a> of these projects are contested – as is the scientific rigour of the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1071/MF22082">proposed auditing</a> method. These projects <a href="https://theconversation.com/victorias-plans-for-engineered-wetlands-on-the-murray-are-environmentally-dubious-heres-a-better-option-204116">should be abandoned</a> in favour of reconnecting rivers to their floodplain. </p>
<h2>4. Reconnect rivers and floodplains</h2>
<p>For floodplain wetlands to function, they must be regularly inundated with water. To date, just <a href="https://www.publish.csiro.au/paper/MF20172">2% of these parts</a> of the basin are inundated each year by managed flows (or in other words, intentional water releases by authorities).</p>
<p>The federal government holds water for this purpose. Delivering the water requires compensation for the owners of inundated properties, as well as upgraded roads, bridges and levee banks. Managed inundation can benefit landholders, such as by reducing the impacts of natural floods. But governments must do a better job of <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13241583.2020.1832723">communicating these benefits</a> to win support.</p>
<p>The federal government needs NSW and Victoria to help implement their agreement for watering floodplains, but this cooperation has been extremely slow. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/damning-royal-commission-report-leaves-no-doubt-that-we-all-lose-if-the-murray-darling-basin-plan-fails-110908">Damning royal commission report leaves no doubt that we all lose if the Murray-Darling Basin Plan fails</a>
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<hr>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="river at sunset" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/537449/original/file-20230714-15-ubu6du.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/537449/original/file-20230714-15-ubu6du.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/537449/original/file-20230714-15-ubu6du.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/537449/original/file-20230714-15-ubu6du.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/537449/original/file-20230714-15-ubu6du.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/537449/original/file-20230714-15-ubu6du.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/537449/original/file-20230714-15-ubu6du.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Rivers must be connected to floodplains.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>5. Make information transparent</h2>
<p>The data and modelling used to manage water in the basin is complex and is often not publicly available. </p>
<p>In its final report in 2019, a South Australian <a href="https://www.environment.sa.gov.au/topics/river-murray/basin-plan/murray-darling-basin-commission">royal commission</a> into the Murray-Darling Basin was highly critical of the Murray-Darling Basin Authority. The report found the authority failed to act on “the best available science” when determining how much water could be returned to the environment, and withheld modelling and other information that should have been made public. </p>
<p>Making such information freely available is crucial for accountability and to build public trust. </p>
<h2>Time for tough decisions</h2>
<p>Each key element of the basin plan has encountered trouble at the implementation stage. The five steps I’ve outlined are essential to rectifying this. </p>
<p>Attention must now also turn to a review of the Murray-Darling Basin Plan, which is legally required in 2026. As well as addressing the problems detailed above, it must address two big issues essentially ignored in the plan to date: the <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13241583.2021.1970094?src=recsys">lack of</a> Indigenous rights over water, and water losses due to <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13241583.2023.2190493">global warming</a> and other environmental change. </p>
<p>If the Albanese government is to uphold its election promise to deliver the plan, hard decisions – and trade-offs – will be required. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/victorias-plans-for-engineered-wetlands-on-the-murray-are-environmentally-dubious-heres-a-better-option-204116">Victoria’s plans for engineered wetlands on the Murray are environmentally dubious. Here’s a better option</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/209328/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jamie Pittock is a member of the Wentworth Group of Concerned Scientists and holds other voluntary roles with non-government environmental and natural resource management organisations. He is Chair of the ACT Natural Resource Management Advisory Committee.</span></em></p>Projects have not been delivered. States are bickering. If the Albanese government is to uphold its election promise to deliver the Murray plan, hard tradeoffs are needed.Jamie Pittock, Professor, Fenner School of Environment & Society, Australian National UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2071552023-06-26T04:56:38Z2023-06-26T04:56:38ZSoil erosion is filling vital inland river waterholes, putting the squeeze on fish, turtles and crayfish<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/531528/original/file-20230613-26-wznt2l.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=4%2C9%2C3058%2C1784&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">John Tibby</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>During droughts, Australia’s inland rivers dry up, leaving waterholes as the only wet places in a parched landscape. Fish, turtles, crayfish and other aquatic animals retreat to these vital refuges. </p>
<p>But our research, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1071/MF23016">published today</a>, reveals these waterholes are in danger of filling up with eroded soil from farms. This is putting a big squeeze on life in the river. </p>
<p>When drought breaks, the water flooding into the river carries soil along with it. In theory, soil deposited in waterholes could be flushed out again by large floods.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/0169555X94900523">Studies in the 1990s</a> suggested as long as floods continued to occur, waterholes would maintain a natural balance of sediment. But these studies focused on the Cooper Creek, in the Kati Thanda (Lake Eyre) Basin, where waterholes have a sandy base underlying clay-dominated soil that can be easily washed out again. Many Australian rivers are different. So what happens elsewhere?</p>
<p>Our new research investigated waterhole infilling in the Moonie River, in the northern part of the Murray Darling-Basin. The Moonie catchment has experienced extensive clearing of native vegetation for sheep and cattle grazing. Unlike some neighbouring catchments, the upper and middle portions of the river have minimal water extraction and so their flow patterns are relatively “natural”. It’s a true “dryland river”, flowing only after infrequent rain events. During long periods with no flow, waterholes become the only remaining wet habitats for aquatic animals to survive.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/531582/original/file-20230613-22-m9x1lj.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A photograph of Moonie River showing bare banks and soil erosion" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/531582/original/file-20230613-22-m9x1lj.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/531582/original/file-20230613-22-m9x1lj.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/531582/original/file-20230613-22-m9x1lj.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/531582/original/file-20230613-22-m9x1lj.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/531582/original/file-20230613-22-m9x1lj.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/531582/original/file-20230613-22-m9x1lj.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/531582/original/file-20230613-22-m9x1lj.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Moonie River’s bare banks suffer from erosion. Much of the catchment has also been cleared for grazing.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">John Tibby</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/australias-inland-rivers-are-the-pulse-of-the-outback-by-2070-theyll-be-unrecognisable-136492">Australia’s inland rivers are the pulse of the outback. By 2070, they’ll be unrecognisable</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Poking at sediment to understand waterholes</h2>
<p>Waterholes in the Moonie River can be more than 5 kilometres long, up to 5 metres deep, and teeming with life. Kingfishers, whistling kites and parrots create a symphony of sound while fish occasionally break the surface of the murky water. </p>
<p>We studied three of the deepest waterholes in the Moonie River, as they are the ones that <a href="https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fenvs.2021.671556/full">last longest in droughts</a>. Our initial method was simple. Using metal rods, we probed the soil’s depth at evenly spaced points along the waterholes. Our first survey revealed all three waterholes had accumulated at least a metre of soil, with one site showing more than 2.5 metres of infilling, significantly reducing its depth.</p>
<p>To determine the rate of sediment accumulation, we used radiocarbon dating. This technique is commonly used for dating objects thousands of years old such as the <a href="https://www.nma.gov.au/defining-moments/resources/mungo-lady">Lake Mungo skeletons</a>. However, nuclear weapons testing in the 1950s introduced new radioactive material including radiocarbon into the atmosphere worldwide. By analysing radiocarbon in the Moonie River sediments, we could estimate their age. </p>
<p>Our sediment dating revealed that, in places, more than two metres of soil had filled the deepest waterholes <a href="https://doi.org/10.1071/MF23016">since the 1950s</a>. Before European occupation, it would have taken thousands of years to deposit this much soil. Our research suggests sediment infilling also sped up over the past few decades.</p>
<p>The accumulated soil reduces the waterholes’ depth, preventing them from holding water for as long as they used to during droughts. Our modelling indicated this reduction has shortened the duration waterholes can hold water by almost a year at some sites, bringing them dangerously close to complete drying during the longest droughts.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/533943/original/file-20230626-5608-3zt1z7.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A cut-away graphic showing comparing the depth of waterholes before and after European settlement" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/533943/original/file-20230626-5608-3zt1z7.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/533943/original/file-20230626-5608-3zt1z7.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=276&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/533943/original/file-20230626-5608-3zt1z7.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=276&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/533943/original/file-20230626-5608-3zt1z7.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=276&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/533943/original/file-20230626-5608-3zt1z7.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=347&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/533943/original/file-20230626-5608-3zt1z7.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=347&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/533943/original/file-20230626-5608-3zt1z7.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=347&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Waterholes were much deeper before European settlement.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://ian.umces.edu/media-library/">Sara Clifford, using resources from the Integration and Application Network</a>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Do floods remove soil from waterholes?</h2>
<p>However, two significant questions remained: does sediment get removed after a large flood? And if it does, does material from upstream simply get dumped downstream? To answer these questions, we needed some luck and a knowledge of cocktails.</p>
<p>In 2010 and 2011, the Moonie River experienced two <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2011-01-04/flood-hit-st-george-evacuates-residents/1893662">very large floods</a>. This gave us the perfect opportunity to find answers. We repeated our waterhole surveys and found even after big floods, there was still a minimum of 1 metre of sediment across most of the bottom of these waterholes, with much deeper sediment in places.</p>
<p>The missing piece of our puzzle was to determine whether the sediments were mixed together, like a margarita, and deposited by a single flood, or if they were layered, resembling a B52 cocktail (another connection to nuclear bomb testing). </p>
<p>To unravel this, we examined how the sediment had changed since before the floods. We observed distinct layers, like those in a B52 cocktail, indicating the sediments had been deposited over a series of flows and floods since the 1950s, rather than solely after individual floods.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/we-helped-fill-a-major-climate-change-knowledge-gap-thanks-to-130-000-year-old-sediment-in-sydney-lakes-187784">We helped fill a major climate change knowledge gap, thanks to 130,000-year-old sediment in Sydney lakes</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>How can we solve this problem?</h2>
<p>We need to address the imbalance between eroded soil supply and the river’s capacity to transport sediment downstream. </p>
<p>In the Moonie River, water extraction for human use is minimal, so the problem is unlikely to lie with the river’s flow regime. The main culprit is an increased supply of sediment.</p>
<p>That means the solution lies in better catchment soil management. We need to stop so much soil washing into the Moonie River. This requires further research to find the main sources of soil that fills waterholes. Then determine the most effective ways to prevent erosion and reduce the amount of soil entering the river. This approach also helps preserve precious soils on agricultural land. In some exceptional cases, more extensive engineering solutions may be necessary to restore waterholes.</p>
<p>Given climate change projections for more frequent and longer droughts in the region, taking action to restore and preserve the function of waterholes in dryland rivers like the Moonie becomes increasingly crucial. These actions are essential for safeguarding the diverse aquatic animal life and the people that depend on waterholes for survival during droughts.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/its-official-the-murray-darling-basin-plan-hasnt-met-its-promise-to-our-precious-rivers-so-where-to-now-188074">It's official: the Murray-Darling Basin Plan hasn't met its promise to our precious rivers. So where to now?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/207155/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>John Tibby receives funding from the Australian Research Council, The Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation, the Queensland and South Australian Governments. This research was partially funded by the Queensland Government.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jonathan Marshall works for the Queensland Department of Environment and Science who partially funded this research. </span></em></p>Australia’s beloved billabongs and waterholes are in danger of filling up with eroded soil from farms, leaving little room for the aquatic animals that depend on these vital drought refuges.John Tibby, Associate Professor in Environmental Change, University of AdelaideJonathan Marshall, Adjunct Senior Research Fellow in the Australian Rivers Institute, Griffith UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2041162023-04-20T06:14:59Z2023-04-20T06:14:59ZVictoria’s plans for engineered wetlands on the Murray are environmentally dubious. Here’s a better option<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/522003/original/file-20230420-26-7fhu9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=573%2C3%2C1471%2C738&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/184659367@N07/52379093097/in/photolist-2nNyxw2-2aQegbr-2hLesDM-2giQ9UJ-2iQ91zf-2ocbMcE-BvTWzP-KCy8tM-2o9VNrj-pdAWGi-2o9YjJg-2eCi2NW-aMDRpT-GPvBSc-qzCMd-2iQ7mJ6-2h1Y8hY-2jAbX97-z6XahV-2o9Tdjw-2o9TdsY-7H5gjr-2o9YjzU-2hSkRUA-2obAR2Q-qN9wuS-96U49x-BdvXAy-2ojm6wx-2m6prZu-2fKqAd9-2o9TdUz-7K1RL5-G9N9rb-2njPXJY-2iQ7mSh-2e36tzz-2m84Jwa-Uhysry-9f4ekQ-2hSkS4P-r5zDre-2n69eud-2n69Hq5-cPD7if-6YAtwR-CujBPe-6YE7Zm-2n64gd4-2n69Hui">John Morton/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Governments love the idea of a win-win – even when it doesn’t exist. That’s why Victoria has been spending millions on planning “red gum irrigation ponds” – essentially, engineered wetlands along the River Murray. These wetlands are designed to save some red gum ecosystems, leave many others to decline, and redirect billions of litres of water promised to the environment to farmers. </p>
<p>Controversy <a href="https://www.theage.com.au/environment/sustainability/going-against-the-flow-the-plan-to-engineer-victoria-s-wetlands-20230329-p5cwb7.html">has followed</a> these projects. Now, Victoria appears to have blinked, with the state’s water minister, Harriet Shing, <a href="https://www.weeklytimesnow.com.au/news/water/shing-halts-floodplain-works-fears-federal-funding-will-be-cut/news-story/e22a38442f6ab2c7c7f4a5fd0073f996">halting the development</a> of four of nine projects. </p>
<p>Victory for environmental water? Not quite. Victoria has spent around A$54 million just on planning these projects. By halting four of them, it sets the scene for a larger-scale federal buyback of water for the environment. This could signal a resumption of the Murray-Darling Basin <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2019/dec/14/water-wars-will-politics-destroy-the-murray-darling-basin-plan-and-the-river-system-itself">water wars</a>, with Victoria the last holdout. National Irrigators’ Council chair Jeremy Morton predicted “riot” if further water buybacks went ahead.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/522002/original/file-20230420-22-53mmca.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="river red gum" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/522002/original/file-20230420-22-53mmca.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/522002/original/file-20230420-22-53mmca.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/522002/original/file-20230420-22-53mmca.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/522002/original/file-20230420-22-53mmca.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/522002/original/file-20230420-22-53mmca.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/522002/original/file-20230420-22-53mmca.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/522002/original/file-20230420-22-53mmca.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Iconic Australian trees like river red gums need irregular deep soaking from floods.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/michaelrawle/18117658648/">Michael Rawle/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>What was Victoria trying to do?</h2>
<p>Historically, flooding covered 6.3 million hectares of red gum, black box and coolibah forests, lakes and billabongs in the Murray-Darling Basin. These forests rely on regular floods to survive. </p>
<p>But the basin is also home to most of our thirsty crops, from rice to cotton to orchards. The demand for irrigation alongside the long-term drying trend from climate change means something has <a href="https://doi.org/10.3390/w14020208">had to give</a>. You guessed it: it’s the wetlands, which are drying out and dying. </p>
<p>In 2012, state and federal governments launched the Murray-Darling Basin Plan in a bid to solve longstanding tussles over water. The plan was intended to preserve environmental flows while allocating set volumes of water to farmers. </p>
<p>But it’s not working properly. As <a href="https://doi.org/10.1071/MF20172">our research</a> shows, only 2% of the basin’s wetlands have received managed environmental flows each year since. </p>
<p>To keep wetlands alive with less water, there are two basic options: use pulsed flows from dams to flood a larger area, or build floodplain infrastructure to maintain some wetlands while abandoning others.</p>
<p>Victoria has pursued infrastructure. As <a href="https://www.theage.com.au/environment/sustainability/going-against-the-flow-the-plan-to-engineer-victoria-s-wetlands-20230329-p5cwb7.html">originally planned</a>, these projects would have meant building $320 million of dams, pumps, levees and roads in conservation reserves to artificially pond water – while leaving <a href="https://doi.org/10.1071/MF22082">less water</a> in the main river channels. Similar projects were proposed in New South Wales at <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2023/feb/06/new-nsw-plan-for-murray-darling-saves-almost-no-water">Menindee Lakes</a>, but these are unlikely to proceed.</p>
<p>These projects are greenwashed as “environmental works”. Victoria brazenly <a href="https://www.vmfrp.com.au/home/">calls its plan</a> a “floodplain restoration project”. </p>
<p>It is not. Since the plan began, irrigators have been credited with 605 billion litres of water for 36 largely unimplemented projects under the <a href="https://www.mdba.gov.au/basin-plan-roll-out/sustainable-diversion-limits/sdlam">sustainable diversion mechanism</a>. In November 2022, basin authority chief
Andrew McConville <a href="https://www.mdba.gov.au/news-media-events/newsroom/media-centre/address-national-rural-press-club-address-national-rural">laid out</a> the problem: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>The credit has been banked, but the payment still needs to be delivered. The payment is in the form of the [wetland] projects being in operation by 30 June 2024. </p>
</blockquote>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/522007/original/file-20230420-16-wlch81.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="cotton farming NSW" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/522007/original/file-20230420-16-wlch81.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/522007/original/file-20230420-16-wlch81.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/522007/original/file-20230420-16-wlch81.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/522007/original/file-20230420-16-wlch81.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/522007/original/file-20230420-16-wlch81.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/522007/original/file-20230420-16-wlch81.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/522007/original/file-20230420-16-wlch81.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Our thirstiest crops cluster around the rivers of the Murray Darling Basin and rely on water in irrigation channels like this.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Water has been credited to irrigators before the wetland projects were built. As a result, actual environmental flows are 19% lower than the Basin Plan target of 3,200 billion litres per year.</p>
<h2>Building wetland infrastructure is unprecedented</h2>
<p>Around the world, nations are going the other way to Victoria and removing floodplain infrastructure. In <a href="https://nccarf.edu.au/living-floods-key-lessons-australia-and-abroad/">China</a>, across <a href="https://edepot.wur.nl/431674">Europe</a> and in the <a href="https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fenvs.2021.778568/full">United States</a>, efforts are under way to reconnect rivers to their floodplains. Why? To reduce flood impacts (levees intensify floods downstream), improve water quality, restore flood-dependent ecosystems, make river systems more recreation-friendly and diversify local economies. </p>
<p>Only in the Murray-Darling Basin are we seeing governments building infrastructure for environmental water offsetting on such a huge scale. </p>
<p>And just as controversies have dogged Australia’s attempts to <a href="https://www.parliament.nsw.gov.au/committees/inquiries/Pages/inquiry-details.aspx?pk=2822#tab-reportsandgovernmentresponses">offset biodiversity losses</a> and <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/jan/09/chubb-review-recommends-new-integrity-body-for-australian-carbon-credits-scheme">carbon emissions</a>, there are major problems with water offsetting.</p>
<p>The reason for this offsetting is political, not ecological. In 2012, Victoria’s then water minister, Peter Walsh, <a href="https://www.pressreader.com/australia/shepparton-news/20120829/281655367245461">stated</a> the plan was meant to:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>stop irrigation water being stripped from rural communities and food and fibre producers, and to achieve better environmental outcomes.</p>
</blockquote>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/its-official-the-murray-darling-basin-plan-hasnt-met-its-promise-to-our-precious-rivers-so-where-to-now-188074">It's official: the Murray-Darling Basin Plan hasn't met its promise to our precious rivers. So where to now?</a>
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<p>In fact, these projects are <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s10750-012-1292-9">environmentally dubious</a>. Ponding water on floodplains may meet some ecological targets, but it cannot replicate unconstrained natural floods. Worse, it risks <a href="https://doi.org/10.1890/130259">harming ecosystems</a> by upending aquatic food webs and leading to lower native fish populations and worse water quality. </p>
<p>Victoria’s very expensive projects would water only 14,000 hectares of wetlands. By contrast, safe flood pulse releases from existing dams would water 27 times that area – <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/13241583.2020.1832723">375,000 hectares</a>. </p>
<p>In his <a href="https://www.preventionweb.net/publication/murray-darling-basin-royal-commission-report">royal commission report</a> into how the Murray-Darling water-sharing system works, Commissioner Brett Walker found there was “real doubt” over whether projects like this were based on the best scientific knowledge. </p>
<p><a href="https://doi.org/10.1071/MF22082">Our research</a> backs his conclusions. We have found flaws in how these projects are evaluated, which mean their environmental benefits are overstated.</p>
<h2>What’s likely to happen now?</h2>
<p>Four down – but what about the remaining five projects? </p>
<p>There’s a better option. In 2013, the basin’s governments agreed to <a href="https://www.mdba.gov.au/publications/mdba-reports/constraints-management-strategy">a strategy</a> that would allow pulsed releases from existing dams to fill river channels and spill onto the floodplains. </p>
<p>Under this strategy, the Commonwealth would pay for roads and bridges to be removed or raised to make way for restoration of natural floods, and for compensation to landowners. </p>
<p><a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/13241583.2020.1832723">Our research</a> shows this approach would reduce flood damage by moving infrastructure off floodplains, and allow floods to spread out more, lowering water height and speed. It would also water a much larger wetland area at far less cost. But the strategy has not yet been implemented. </p>
<p>Next month, federal and state water ministers will meet to discuss the <a href="https://theconversation.com/its-official-the-murray-darling-basin-plan-hasnt-met-its-promise-to-our-precious-rivers-so-where-to-now-188074">failing</a> basin plan. If the new NSW water minister, Rose Jackson, backs her federal Labor colleagues, it will leave Victoria as the last state objecting to water purchases for river restoration.</p>
<p>The federal water minister, Tanya Plibersek, shows <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-02-22/federal-government-water-buybacks-murray-darling-basin-plan-730/102007496">every indication</a> of implementing Labor’s 2022 election policy of buying back the remaining water needed to meet the 3,200 billion litre environmental restoration target under the plan. (The federal government has bought back around 2,100 billion litres <a href="https://www.mdba.gov.au/progress-water-recovery">since 2008</a>.) </p>
<p>The stage is set: will Plibersek prevail and finally achieve long-sought environmental restoration goals under the basin plan, or will Victoria hold out?</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/money-for-dams-dries-up-as-good-water-management-finally-makes-it-into-a-federal-budget-193380">Money for dams dries up as good water management finally makes it into a federal budget</a>
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<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/204116/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jamie Pittock is affiliated with the Wentworth Group of Concerned Scientists and a number of other non-governmental environment organisations. In the past he has received funding from the National Climate Change Adaptation Research Facility. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Matthew Colloff is affiliated with the Wentworth Group of Concerned Scientists. In the past he has been a member of project teams within CSIRO that have received funding from the Murray-Darling Basin Authority and the Commonwealth Environmental Water Holder. </span></em></p>Victoria is planning to engineer wetlands so more water can go to agriculture. It’s not a good plan.Jamie Pittock, Professor, Fenner School of Environment & Society, Australian National UniversityMatthew Colloff, Honorary Senior Lecturer, Australian National UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1933802022-10-27T19:05:43Z2022-10-27T19:05:43ZMoney for dams dries up as good water management finally makes it into a federal budget<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/492016/original/file-20221027-23859-8g7fsa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=8%2C25%2C5551%2C3675&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Wyangala Dam</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">AAP Image/Lukas Coch</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>A story from the early days of the Abbott government still circulates in the halls of Parliament House.</p>
<p>The government’s Expenditure Review Committee apparently supported then Minister for Agriculture Barnaby Joyce’s first A$500 million budget funding for the National Party’s dam-building plans, over then Treasurer Joe Hockey’s objections. Hockey reputedly said to Joyce “good luck with that, I don’t think you’ll build one of them”. If true then Joe, take a cigar.</p>
<p>In our land of drought and flooding rains, better water management should feature in every federal budget. Thankfully, the budget handed down by Treasurer Jim Chalmers on Tuesday delivers it.</p>
<p>It slashes spending on big dams and elevates the role of science in water decision-making. It also positions Labor to undertake further reform in the Murray-Darling Basin by buying back more water from farmers to improve the health of the rivers, and manage the impacts of climate change.</p>
<p>These measures promise to deliver more sustainable use of water in Australia’s most economically important and exploited river system. But they also buy a fight with some quarters of the farming community, and the New South Wales and Victorian governments.</p>
<h2>Nationals set about building dams</h2>
<p>Dams are a talisman for Australians <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0725513618821970">who believe</a> development and the conquest of nature is essential to nation-building. </p>
<p>The National Party arguably exemplifies this ideology. It gained control of the water portfolios in the former federal government and current NSW government and set about trying to <a href="https://barnabyjoyce.com.au/opinion-piece">build dams</a>, especially in the Murray-Darling Basin.</p>
<p>The Liberal Party has conceded to National Party demands on water even though the <a href="https://www.dcceew.gov.au/water/policy/policy/nwi">National Water Initiative</a>, established by the Coalition in 2004, <a href="https://www.dcceew.gov.au/sites/default/files/sitecollectiondocuments/water/Intergovernmental-Agreement-on-a-national-water-initiative.pdf">stipulates</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>proposals for investment in new or refurbished water infrastructure […] be assessed as economically viable and ecologically sustainable prior to the investment occurring.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>This week’s budget wields a long overdue axe to dam proposals from Coalition governments, saving <a href="https://budget.gov.au/2022-23-october/content/bp1/download/bp1_2022-23.pdf">$1.7 billion over four years</a>. Two of the most controversial dam proposals in the Murray-Darling Basin are among those axed or indefinitely postponed. </p>
<p>First is the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2022/aug/17/dungowan-dam-likely-dead-in-the-water-after-infrastructure-australia-deems-proposal-low-priority">$1.27 billion</a> Dungowan proposal near Tamworth in NSW. <a href="https://www.pc.gov.au/inquiries/completed/water-reform-2020/report">It was slammed</a> by the Productivity Commission as excessively expensive and the leading example of poor water infrastructure decision making. </p>
<p>Second is the hugely expensive - up to <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-05-18/wyangala-dam-wall-raising-missing-from-election-campaign-/101072664">$2.1 billion at last estimate</a> - raising of Wyangala Dam, near Cowra. In 2021 a NSW <a href="https://www.parliament.nsw.gov.au/committees/inquiries/Pages/inquiry-details.aspx?pk=2614#tab-reportsandgovernmentresponses">parliamentary inquiry</a> found the proposal was “yet to demonstrate the cost effectiveness and water yield benefits of the project”.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/labors-sensible-budget-leaves-australians-short-changed-on-climate-action-heres-where-it-went-wrong-193215">Labor's 'sensible' budget leaves Australians short-changed on climate action. Here's where it went wrong</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Further, $153.8 million of unallocated funding in former “water efficiency” projects in the basin has been (somewhat ambiguously) “re-profiled”. These efficiency projects have been <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13241583.2019.1579965">criticised as</a> double-counting water at the expense of the environment, being very expensive and subsidising irrigators. </p>
<p>Importantly, Labor has quietly sought to lock a commitment to better governance with transparent environmental and socio-economic assessment standards in a new <a href="https://www.nationalwatergrid.gov.au/sites/default/files/documents/investment-framework-october-2022.pdf">National Water Grid Investment Framework</a>.</p>
<h2>Science and the Murray-Darling Basin</h2>
<p>Labor has allocated $51.9 million over five years to strengthen the Murray-Darling Basin Plan “by updating the science to account for the impacts of climate change and restore trust and transparency in water management”.</p>
<p>This spending is timely. The past decade and more has seen risk-averse government agencies commission water research through narrow briefs to the government-owned CSIRO and other contractors. In one instance, the South Australian Royal Commission into the <a href="https://apo.org.au/sites/default/files/resource-files/2019-01/apo-nid217606.pdf">Murray-Darling Basin</a> described this research as “improperly pressured” and representing “maladministration”.</p>
<p>The situation worsened when the research program into better water management commissioned by the independent National Water Commission was <a href="https://www.water-alternatives.org/index.php/alldoc/articles/volume-13/issue-1/561-a13-1-1">axed under Abbott</a> in 2014.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/excessive-water-extractions-not-climate-change-are-most-to-blame-for-the-darling-river-drying-192621">Excessive water extractions, not climate change, are most to blame for the Darling River drying</a>
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</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>This has resulted in science that may not be independently peer-reviewed and often doesn’t address the big questions.</p>
<p>For instance, after allocating around <a href="https://www.dcceew.gov.au/water/policy/programs/water-reform">$13 billion</a> for water management reforms in the basin since 2008, governments still can’t tell the public:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>why water inflows into South Australia are about <a href="https://wentworthgroup.org/2020/09/mdb-flows-2020/">22% lower</a> than basin modelling projected (excluding climatic variability)</p></li>
<li><p>the area and types of <a href="https://doi.org/10.1071/MF20172">wetlands watered</a> each year </p></li>
<li><p>if <a href="https://doi.org/10.1071/MF21057">threatened species populations</a> are recovering. </p></li>
</ul>
<p>Further, water institutions in the basin do not currently adequately <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S146290112030215X">address the threat</a> of climate change.</p>
<h2>Returning water to the rivers</h2>
<p>Measures to implement the basin plan are meant to be complete in mid-2024. Consequently, allocated funding for all Basin water reforms was due to decline markedly after this point. Yet, major and expensive elements of the plan have still <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-05-03/reckoning-coming-for-murray-darling-basin-plan/101020756">not been implemented</a>.</p>
<p>In just one example, the Victorian and NSW governments were supposed <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13241583.2020.1832723">to reach agreements</a> and pay over 3,300 riverside land owners to fill river channels and allow water to spill safely onto the lower-most floodplains. This would conserve nearly 375,000 hectares of wetlands, and maximise conservation of flora and fauna with the limited volume of available environmental water. </p>
<p>However, since 2013 the state governments have failed to make a single agreement with land owners.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/492026/original/file-20221027-12-vkvslq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A river on a sunny day, behind two big trees" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/492026/original/file-20221027-12-vkvslq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/492026/original/file-20221027-12-vkvslq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/492026/original/file-20221027-12-vkvslq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/492026/original/file-20221027-12-vkvslq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/492026/original/file-20221027-12-vkvslq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/492026/original/file-20221027-12-vkvslq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/492026/original/file-20221027-12-vkvslq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Murrumbidgee river at Yanga Woolshed, a major tributary of the Murray-Darling Basin.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Jamie Pittock</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Hundreds of billions of litres of water that were supposed to have been reallocated to the environment are still missing. The latest federal budget describes the lack of water recovery for the environment as an unquantified “fiscal risk”. </p>
<p>Waving a big stick, Labor has allocated initial funding for meeting the environmental water targets in the plan. The amount of the funding has not been disclosed. It could involve purchasing water entitlements from farmers who volunteer to sell them – a move deeply <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2022/oct/27/farmers-gear-up-to-fight-water-buybacks-as-federal-budget-allocates-funding-to-meet-murray-darling-targets">opposed by</a> the state governments and the irrigation industry.</p>
<p>The budget also funds repairs to other broken elements of the basin’s water governance. After a decade of cuts, the now Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water <a href="https://budget.gov.au/2022-23-october/content/bp2/index.htm">will have funding</a> restored to, among other goals, improve “the health of our rivers and freshwater ecosystems”.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/australia-has-an-ugly-legacy-of-denying-water-rights-to-aboriginal-people-not-much-has-changed-141743">Australia has an ugly legacy of denying water rights to Aboriginal people. Not much has changed</a>
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</p>
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<p>There is also money to start work on re-establishing a National Water Commission, and <a href="https://budget.gov.au/2022-23-october/content/bp1/index.htm">to reform</a> the much criticised water trading markets to make them more transparent and robust. </p>
<p>Finally, the budget allocates $40 million to begin addressing the appalling dispossession of water from Indigenous peoples, who now hold <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13241583.2021.1970094?src=recsys">just 0.17%</a> of surface water entitlements in the basin. It’s a small but important first step for water justice.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/193380/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jamie Pittock is a member of the Wentworth Group of Concerned Scientists, and is a member of and advises a number of other environmental non-government organizations. Many moons ago he received funding from the National Climate Change Adaptation Research Facility (RIP) for research on on climate change adaptation in the Murray-Darling Basin.</span></em></p>In our land of drought and flooding rains, better water management should feature in every federal budget. The new budget delivers it – but not everyone is happy.Jamie Pittock, Professor, Fenner School of Environment & Society, Australian National UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1880742022-08-03T07:44:32Z2022-08-03T07:44:32ZIt’s official: the Murray-Darling Basin Plan hasn’t met its promise to our precious rivers. So where to now?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/477326/original/file-20220803-24-pv5yw8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=11%2C0%2C3873%2C2595&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Dean Lewins/AAP</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>A long-awaited <a href="https://www.dcceew.gov.au/water/policy/mdb/policy/wesa-review">report</a> released on Tuesday found the amount of water promised to river environments under the Murray-Darling Basin Plan “cannot be achieved” under current settings. In short, the plan is failing on a key target. </p>
<p>The water is essential to protecting plants, animals and ecosystems along Australia’s most important river system.</p>
<p>One part of the plan stipulates that by 2024, 450 billion litres of water – a small proportion of the overall target – should be recovered and returned to rivers, wetlands and groundwater systems. This should be achieved through water efficiency programs funded by the Commonwealth. </p>
<p>But just two years out from the deadline, only 2.6 billion litres, or about 0.5% of this water, has actually been delivered. The findings have reignited debate about the Murray-Darling Basin – a running sore for which treatments abound, but seemingly no cure exists. </p>
<p>Before the May election, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese pledged to deliver the Murray-Darling Basin Plan. But yesterday’s report, prepared by independent experts, casts serious doubt on whether that promise can be kept. The basin’s focus on a sustainable future is still a way off, and only political will can fix it.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/australia-its-time-to-talk-about-our-water-emergency-139024">Australia, it's time to talk about our water emergency</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="headshot of blonde woman in light yellow jacket" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/477330/original/file-20220803-1873-bzmrvc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/477330/original/file-20220803-1873-bzmrvc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/477330/original/file-20220803-1873-bzmrvc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/477330/original/file-20220803-1873-bzmrvc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/477330/original/file-20220803-1873-bzmrvc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/477330/original/file-20220803-1873-bzmrvc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/477330/original/file-20220803-1873-bzmrvc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Political will is needed to fix the Murray Darling Basin Plan. Pictured: Federal Environment and Water Minister Tanya Plibersek.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Mick Tsikas/AAP</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>What’s this all about?</h2>
<p>You could be forgiven for not having read <a href="https://www.dcceew.gov.au/water/policy/mdb/policy/wesa-review">Tuesday’s report</a>, which bore the repellent title “Second review of the Water for the Environment Special Account”. It reflects the arcane and impenetrable jargon surrounding water management in the basin which hinders public understanding of this crucial policy area.</p>
<p>The plan involves “water recovery targets” to be met by “efficiency and constraints measures”. But what does that all mean? </p>
<p>Irrigators and other water users extract water from the rivers, streams and aquifers of the Murray-Darling Basin. Over the years, too much water has been extracted, which has left the basin in poor condition. </p>
<p>The A$13 billion Murray-Darling Basin Plan was meant to address this problem. Passed into law in 2012 under the Gillard Labor government, it promised to deliver 3,200 billion litres of water to the environment each year, by buying back water allocated to extractors and retaining it in the river system. </p>
<p>The goal comprised two targets for water to be delivered to the environment each year: 2,750 billion litres as soon as possible, and an additional 450 billion litres later, if it did not cause significant socio-economic impact. To do the latter, the federal government established a $1.8 billion Commonwealth fund to invest in water efficiency projects that would deliver water back to the environment.</p>
<p>Complicating matters, irrigators and others were opposed to water buybacks. In 2015, the Coalition government put <a href="https://www.unisa.edu.au/unisanews/2019/may/story9/">a stop</a> to the practice, despite its proven <a href="https://www.pc.gov.au/inquiries/completed/murray-darling-water-recovery/report/water-recovery-report.pdf">cost-effectiveness</a> compared to alternatives such as subsidising dams and channels under efficiency programs. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="men yell and gesture during protest" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/477334/original/file-20220803-17-iznlyp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/477334/original/file-20220803-17-iznlyp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/477334/original/file-20220803-17-iznlyp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/477334/original/file-20220803-17-iznlyp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/477334/original/file-20220803-17-iznlyp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/477334/original/file-20220803-17-iznlyp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/477334/original/file-20220803-17-iznlyp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Irrigators and others were opposed to water buybacks.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Lukas Coch/AAP</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Water savings were to come from measures such as improving water efficiency on farms, and funding irrigators to reduce evaporation from dams by building them deeper.</p>
<p>But engineering does not easily replace ecological complexity shaped over millennia. Making water move more quickly down a river produces casualties: the creeks and wetlands and groundwater systems that rely on it.</p>
<p>Major efficiency projects have been exposed as <a href="https://www.pc.gov.au/inquiries/completed/basin-plan/report/basin-plan-overview.pdf">inadequte</a>. They predominantly just move environmental water from one part of the basin to the other, at significant public cost. </p>
<p>So what’s the upshot of all this? According to Tuesday’s report, under current efficiency measures only 60 billion litres of water can be returned to the basin environment by 2024. What’s more, the original target of 2,750 billion litres has <a href="https://www.dcceew.gov.au/water/policy/mdb/progress-recovery">not yet been achieved</a>. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/we-looked-at-35-years-of-rainfall-and-learnt-how-droughts-start-in-the-murray-darling-basin-145766">We looked at 35 years of rainfall and learnt how droughts start in the Murray-Darling Basin</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Riverside tree with branch painted 'save the Darling'" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/477338/original/file-20220803-15-359kso.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/477338/original/file-20220803-15-359kso.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/477338/original/file-20220803-15-359kso.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/477338/original/file-20220803-15-359kso.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/477338/original/file-20220803-15-359kso.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/477338/original/file-20220803-15-359kso.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/477338/original/file-20220803-15-359kso.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Coalition claimed its policy would not harm the river system.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Dean Lewins/AAP</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Our rivers remain in trouble</h2>
<p>After all this effort and debate, the health of the Murray-Darling Basin continues to degrade. </p>
<p>The State of the Environment report released this month found water extraction and drought left water levels at <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/jul/19/labor-says-it-wont-put-head-in-the-sand-as-it-releases-shocking-environment-report">record lows</a> in 2019. Rivers and catchments are mostly in poor condition, and native fish populations fell by more than 90% in the past 150 years. </p>
<p>Who could forget the disaster of late 2018 and early 2019, when <a href="https://www.science.org.au/academy-newsletter/february-2019-124/academy-produces-scientific-report-darling-river-fish-kills#:%7E:text=In%20the%20wake%20of%20three,of%20river%20near%20Menindee%2C%20NSW.">millions of fish</a> died at Menindee Lakes? That disaster was <a href="https://www.parliament.nsw.gov.au/researchpapers/Documents/Murray%20Darling%20Basin%20-%20fish%20kills%20and%20current%20conditions.pdf">associated with</a> low river flows, from the drought exacerbated by over-extraction.</p>
<p>First Nations peoples, river communities and others that rely on healthy rivers have also <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0016718519303641">borne the costs</a> of this policy failure. </p>
<p>Recent rainfall and flooding has bought breathing space, but drought will return, and climate change is <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/B9780128181522000127">projected </a>to make the basin drier. </p>
<p>Other factors are denying rivers the water they need. They include <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-09-03/the-mystery-of-the-murray-darlings-vanishing-flows/12612166">water</a> <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/rural/2021-08-09/irrigators-lose-court-appeal-against-water-theft-charge/100362370">theft</a> and poor policy – such as the NSW government’s commitment to let water be harvested from floodplains, against <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/jul/17/nsw-flood-plain-harvesting-rules-wont-protect-environment-government-advisers-warn#:%7E:text=Media-,NSW%20flood%20plain%20harvesting%20rules%20won,protect%20environment%2C%20government%20advisers%20warn&text=The%20Perrottet%20government%20has%20been,in%20the%20Murray%20Darling%20Basin.">warnings</a> by its own advisers.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/robber-barons-and-high-speed-traders-dominate-australias-water-market-166422">Robber barons and high-speed traders dominate Australia’s water market</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="dead white fish float on water" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/477337/original/file-20220803-1873-lop19q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/477337/original/file-20220803-1873-lop19q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/477337/original/file-20220803-1873-lop19q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/477337/original/file-20220803-1873-lop19q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/477337/original/file-20220803-1873-lop19q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/477337/original/file-20220803-1873-lop19q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/477337/original/file-20220803-1873-lop19q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Thousands of fish died at Menindee Lake after low river flows.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">GRAEME MCCRABB</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Finding political will</h2>
<p>A crucial aspect not covered in the report is the lack of credible information on how much water is actually recovered by water efficiency programs. An independent audit on this is urgently needed.</p>
<p>And there remain opportunities to implement more efficient and cost-effective ways of recovering water for the environment. This could include buying back water from willing irrigators, while recognising the potential local economic effects. </p>
<p>It’s a politically difficult move – sure to attract opposition from the Nationals, as well as the NSW and Victorian governments.</p>
<p>But the health of the Murray-Darling Basin is essential for all Australians. As this latest report shows, our politicians must finally find the will to secure the basin’s future.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/188074/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Richard Kingsford receives funding from State and Commonwealth Governments, including the Murray-Darling Basin Authority, as well as philanthropic funding. He is also a member of the Wentworth Group of Concerned Scientists. He is a member of the Society for Conservation Biology, Birdlife Australia and Ecological Society of Australia. </span></em></p>Federal Labor has pledged to deliver the Murray Darling Basin Plan. But a new report casts serious doubt on that promise.Richard Kingsford, Professor, School of Biological, Earth and Environmental Sciences, UNSW SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1551162021-02-11T04:18:04Z2021-02-11T04:18:04ZOur national water policy is outdated, unfair and not fit for climate challenges: major new report<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/383672/original/file-20210211-19-15a153.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C13%2C2940%2C1944&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Most Australians know all too well how precious water is. Sydney just experienced a <a href="https://www.sydneywater.com.au/SW/about-us/our-publications/Media/have-no-doubt--we-re-in-drought/index.htm">severe drought</a>, while towns across New South Wales and Queensland <a href="https://www.9news.com.au/national/queensland-floods-warwick-two-years-worth-rain-weather-drought-news-australia/75f626e9-7f66-4078-b36e-720cfe0de0f8">ran out of drinking water</a>. Under climate change, the situation will become more dire, and more common. </p>
<p>It wasn’t meant to be this way. In 2004, federal, state and territory governments signed up to the <a href="https://www.agriculture.gov.au/sites/default/files/sitecollectiondocuments/water/Intergovernmental-Agreement-on-a-national-water-initiative.pdf">National Water Initiative</a>. It was meant to secure Australia’s water supplies through better governance and plans for sustainable use across industry, environment and the community.</p>
<p>But a report by the <a href="https://www.pc.gov.au/inquiries/current/water-reform-2020/draft">Productivity Commission</a> released today says the policy must be updated. It found the National Water Initiative is not fit for the challenges of climate change, a growing population and our changing perceptions of how we value water. </p>
<p>The report’s findings matter to all Australians, whether you live in a city or a drought-ravaged town. If governments don’t manage water better, on our behalf, then entire communities may disappear. Agriculture will suffer and nature will continue to degrade. It’s time for a change.</p>
<h2>A big job ahead</h2>
<p>The report acknowledges progress in national water reform, and says Australia’s allocation of water resources has improved. But the commission makes clear there’s still much to be done, including:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>making water infrastructure projects a critical part of the National Water Initiative</p></li>
<li><p>explicitly recognising how climate change threatens water-sharing agreement between states, users, towns, agriculture and the environment</p></li>
<li><p>more meaningful recognition of Indigenous rights to water</p></li>
<li><p>delivering adequate drinking water quality to all Australians, including those in regional and remote communities, especially during drought</p></li>
<li><p>all states committing to drought management plans.</p></li>
</ul>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/rlaPnaGk7S8?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Why Australia needs National Water Reform.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Busting water illusions</h2>
<p>The commission’s proposal to make water infrastructure developments a much larger part of the National Water Initiative is a critical way to keep governments honest. </p>
<p>For years, state and federal governments have used taxpayers’ dollars to pay for <a href="https://www.lexology.com/library/detail.aspx?g=4ad1c8f5-0436-4e8f-b3ce-64be2fb2149f">farming water infrastructure</a> that largely benefits <a href="https://apo.org.au/node/262286">the big end of town</a> — large, corporate irrigators. </p>
<p>For example, the federal government last year announced an additional A$2 billion for its “<a href="https://minister.infrastructure.gov.au/mccormack/media-release/budget-2020-building-21st-century-water-infrastructure">Building 21 Century Water infrastructure</a>” project. This type of funding represents a return to schemes like the discredited <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-11-01/bradfield-scheme-is-moving-water-from-north-to-south-feasible/11662942">Bradfield</a> scheme, a plan to redirect floodwater from Queensland’s north to the south, including to South Australia. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/australias-inland-rivers-are-the-pulse-of-the-outback-by-2070-theyll-be-unrecognisable-136492">Australia’s inland rivers are the pulse of the outback. By 2070, they’ll be unrecognisable</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Such <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-11-01/bradfield-scheme-is-moving-water-from-north-to-south-feasible/11662942">megaprojects</a>, even when relabelled or reconceived, perpetuate simplistic myths of the early 20th Century that Australia – the driest inhabited continent on Earth – can be “<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/sep/25/we-are-talking-about-drought-proofing-again-they-are-simplistic-solutions-that-will-destroy-australia">drought-proofed</a>”.</p>
<p>As the report highlights, when governments in 2004 signed up to the <a href="https://www.agriculture.gov.au/sites/default/files/sitecollectiondocuments/water/Intergovernmental-Agreement-on-a-national-water-initiative.pdf">National Water Initiative</a>, they agreed to ensure investments in water infrastructure would be both economically viable and ecologically sustainable. But many proposed water infrastructure projects <a href="https://waterjusticehub.org/submission-by-the-australian-national-universitys-institute-for-water-futures-to-the-productivity-commissions-national-water-reform-inquiry/">appear to be neither</a>.</p>
<p>This includes the construction of <a href="https://www.waternsw.com.au/projects/new-dams-for-nsw/dungowan-dam">Dungowan Dam in NSW</a>. For this dam, the commission notes, “any infrastructure that improves reliability for one user will affect water availability for others” and the “prospect of ‘new’ water is illusory”.</p>
<p>The commission warned projects that are not economically viable or ecologically sustainable can “burden taxpayers with ongoing costs, discourage efficient water use and result in long-lived impacts on communities and the environment”. </p>
<p>Equally disturbing is that billions of dollars for water infrastructure are currently targeted primarily for primary industry (such as agriculture and mining) while communities in desperate need of drinking water that meets water quality guidelines <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/07900627.2019.1685950">miss out</a>. Thousands of Australians in more remote communities still <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/07900627.2019.1685950">lack access</a> to drinking water most Australians take for granted. </p>
<h2>Water scarcity under climate change</h2>
<p>Water availability under climate change features prominently in the report. The commission says droughts will likely become more intense and frequent and in many places, water will become scarce.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/to-help-drought-affected-farmers-we-need-to-support-them-in-good-times-as-well-as-bad-101184">To help drought-affected farmers, we need to support them in good times as well as bad</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>The report says planning provisions were inadequate to deal with both the Millennium Drought and the <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/environment/sustainability/barwon-darling-river-faces-collapse-from-government-mistakes-report-20190724-p52a7i.html">recent drought</a> in Eastern Australia. </p>
<p>The commission also said more work is needed to rebalance water use in response to climate change. One need only look to the 2012 Murray-Darling Basin Plan — one of the key outcomes of the National Water Initiative — which didn’t <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S146290112030215X?dgcid=rss_sd_all">account for climate change</a> when determining how much water to take from streams and rivers.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/383673/original/file-20210211-15-m3zobr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Aerial view of a wetland in the Murray-Darling Basin" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/383673/original/file-20210211-15-m3zobr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/383673/original/file-20210211-15-m3zobr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/383673/original/file-20210211-15-m3zobr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/383673/original/file-20210211-15-m3zobr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/383673/original/file-20210211-15-m3zobr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/383673/original/file-20210211-15-m3zobr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/383673/original/file-20210211-15-m3zobr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Thousands of Australians lack access to drinking water.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Overcoming past failures</h2>
<p>As the commission report notes, one key policy failure since the 2004 National Water Initiative was signed was the federal government’s <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/rural/2014-05-13/budget-water/5430960">dismantling of the National Water Commission</a> in 2015. It meant Australia no longer had a resourced, well-informed agency to “mark the homework” and make sure the reforms were being implemented as agreed.</p>
<p>The report offers ways to overcome a range of past policy water failures, including strengthening governance architecture for the National Water Initiative.</p>
<p>Importantly, the report also called for better recognition of the rights Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people hold over water. </p>
<p>Aboriginal communities and corporations own <a href="https://theconversation.com/australia-has-an-ugly-legacy-of-denying-water-rights-to-aboriginal-people-not-much-has-changed-141743">just 0.1%</a> of the more than A$26 billion of water entitlements in the Murray-Darling Basin. Clearly, such gross inequities must be overcome.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/383678/original/file-20210211-24-1emv55m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Dried-up river in the Basin" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/383678/original/file-20210211-24-1emv55m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/383678/original/file-20210211-24-1emv55m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/383678/original/file-20210211-24-1emv55m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/383678/original/file-20210211-24-1emv55m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/383678/original/file-20210211-24-1emv55m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/383678/original/file-20210211-24-1emv55m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/383678/original/file-20210211-24-1emv55m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The report calls for more meaningful recognition of Indigenous rights to water.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>What happens in the Murray-Darling Basin is key to national water reform. There is overwhelming evidence the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/feb/05/murray-darling-basin-plan-fails-environment-and-wastes-money-experts">basin plan needs fixing</a>. </p>
<p><a href="https://murraydeclaration.org/the-declaration">To start</a>, subsidies for irrigation-related water infrastructure should be halted until a comprehensive audit is conducted to determine who gets water, when and how. And an independent, properly funded expert agency should be established to monitor, advise and implement the <a href="https://www.legislation.gov.au/Details/C2017C00151">law for managing</a> the Basin’s water resources. </p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.environment.sa.gov.au/topics/river-murray-new/basin-plan/murray-darling-basin-commission">800-page report</a> of the 2019 South Australia Murray-Darling Royal Commission proposes many ways forward. Yet unfortunately, that substantial body of work is not mentioned in the Productivity Commission’s report.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/australia-has-an-ugly-legacy-of-denying-water-rights-to-aboriginal-people-not-much-has-changed-141743">Australia has an ugly legacy of denying water rights to Aboriginal people. Not much has changed</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>We’re still waiting for change</h2>
<p>In 2007, the worst year of the Millennium Drought, <a href="https://apo.org.au/node/262286">Prime Minister John Howard</a> said the current trajectory of water use and management in Australia was not sustainable. He said:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>In a protracted drought, and with the prospect of long-term climate change, we need radical and permanent change.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>We are still waiting for that change. If Australia is to be prosperous and liveable into the future, governments must urgently implement water reform – including adopting recommendations from the Productivity Commission’s report. </p>
<p>If it fails to act, our landscapes will degrade, agriculture will become unsustainable, communities will disintegrate and First Peoples will continue to suffer water injustice.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/155116/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Quentin Grafton is affiliated with the Institute for Water Futures (IWF) at the Australian National University. The IWF made a submission to the Productivity Commission in August 2020 in relation to its inquiry into National Water Reform. He is an Australian Research Council Laureate Fellow and is currently leading a project on water justice and resilience.</span></em></p>A major new report from the Productivity Commission calls for an overhaul of Australia’s 17-year-old policy on water.Quentin Grafton, Director of the Centre for Water Economics, Environment and Policy, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1456132020-09-04T03:03:16Z2020-09-04T03:03:16ZMorrison government plan to scrap water buybacks will hurt taxpayers and the environment<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/356463/original/file-20200904-24-7n4oh0.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=11%2C0%2C3982%2C2994&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The Morrison government <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-09-04/pitt-committs-no-more-buybacks-creates-new-water-compliance-body/12627758">today</a> declared it will axe buybacks of water entitlements from irrigators, placating farmers who say the system has <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/murray-darling-water-woes-strip-another-100-jobs-from-drought-hit-rice-towns-20191126-p53e9k.html">damaged</a> their livelihood and communities. </p>
<p>Instead, Water Minister Keith Pitt says the government will scale up efforts to save water by upgrading infrastructure for farming irrigators in the Murray Darling Basin.</p>
<p>The move will anger environmentalists, who say water buybacks are vital to restoring flows to Australia’s most important river system. It also contradicts <a href="https://theconversation.com/recovering-water-for-the-environment-in-the-murray-darling-farm-upgrades-increase-water-prices-more-than-buybacks-145289">findings</a> from the government’s own experts this week who said farm upgrades increase water prices more than buyback water recovery.</p>
<p>The government has chosen a route not backed by evidence, and which will deliver a bad deal to taxpayers and the environment.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A farmer stands in the dry river bed of the Darling River" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/356465/original/file-20200904-20-s3srfp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/356465/original/file-20200904-20-s3srfp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/356465/original/file-20200904-20-s3srfp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/356465/original/file-20200904-20-s3srfp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/356465/original/file-20200904-20-s3srfp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/356465/original/file-20200904-20-s3srfp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/356465/original/file-20200904-20-s3srfp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The government will no longer buy water from farmers for the environment.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Dean Lewins/AAP</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>A brief history of water buybacks</h2>
<p>Farmers along the Murray Darling are entitled to a certain amount of river water which they can use or sell. In 2008, the federal Labor government began buying some of these entitlements in an open-tender process known as “buybacks”. The purchased water was returned to the parched river system to boost the environment.</p>
<p>In 2012, the Murray Darling Basin Plan was struck. It stipulated that 2,750 billion litres of water would be bought back from irrigators and delivered to the environment every year. The buyback system was <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2011-06-02/windsor-report-slams-murray-darling-authority/2742822">not universally supported</a> – critics claim buybacks increase water prices, and hurt farmers by reducing the water available for irrigation.</p>
<p>The Coalition government came to office in 2013 and adopted a “strategic” approach to water buybacks. These purchases were made behind closed doors with chosen irrigators. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/recovering-water-for-the-environment-in-the-murray-darling-farm-upgrades-increase-water-prices-more-than-buybacks-145289">Recovering water for the environment in the Murray-Darling: farm upgrades increase water prices more than buybacks</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>In <a href="https://www.anao.gov.au/work/performance-audit/procurement-strategic-water-entitlements">a review</a> of these buybacks released last month, the Australian National Audit Office found many of these taxpayer-funded deals were not good value for money.</p>
<p>The federal government ordered the review after <a href="https://www.tai.org.au/sites/default/files/P959%20A%20little%20more%20valuation%20%255bWeb%255d.pdf">controversy</a> involving the 2017 purchase of water from two Queensland properties owned by Eastern Australia Agriculture. </p>
<p>The government paid A$80 million for the entitlements – an amount <a href="https://www.northerndailyleader.com.au/story/6898970/government-paid-almost-double-for-watergate-buyback/?cs=14480">critics said</a> was well over market value. The deal was also contentious because government frontbencher Angus Taylor was, before the purchase, a non-financial director of the company. The company also had links to the Cayman Islands tax haven.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Keith Pitt speaks in Parliament as Prime Minister Scott Morrison watches on" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/356468/original/file-20200904-20-1b3l01g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/356468/original/file-20200904-20-1b3l01g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/356468/original/file-20200904-20-1b3l01g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/356468/original/file-20200904-20-1b3l01g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/356468/original/file-20200904-20-1b3l01g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/356468/original/file-20200904-20-1b3l01g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/356468/original/file-20200904-20-1b3l01g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Water Minister Keith Pitt, pictured during Question Time, is the minister responsible for the new approach.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Mick Tsikas/AAP</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Infrastructure subsidies: a flawed approach</h2>
<p>The Coalition government is taking a different approach to recover water for the environment: subsidising water infrastructure on farms and elsewhere. This infrastructure <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/4corners/cash-splash/11289412">includes</a> lining ponds and possibly levees to trap and store water.</p>
<p>The subsidies have cost many billions of dollars yet recover water at a very much higher cost than <a href="https://www.anu.edu.au/news/all-news/stop-wasteful-water-infrastructure-subsidies-for-mdb-%E2%80%93-study">reverse tenders</a>. This approach also reduces the water that returns to streams and groundwater.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/australia-its-time-to-talk-about-our-water-emergency-139024">Australia, it's time to talk about our water emergency</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>The justification for water infrastructure subsidies is that they are supposedly less damaging to irrigation communities. But the Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics and Sciences (ABARES) concluded in <a href="https://www.agriculture.gov.au/abares/publications/insights/economic-effects-of-water-recovery-in-murray-darling-basin">a report</a> published this week that on-farm water infrastructure subsidies, while beneficial for their participants, “push water prices higher, placing pressure on the wider irrigation sector”. This is the very sector the subsidies purport to help.</p>
<p>So why would the government expand the use of water infrastructure when it costs more and isn’t good value for money? The answer may lie in this finding from the ABARES report:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Irrigators who hold large volumes of entitlement relative to their water use (and are frequently net sellers of water allocations) may benefit from higher water prices, as this increases the value of their entitlements. </p>
<p>Farmers with limited entitlement holdings however may be adversely affected, as higher water prices increase their costs and lowers their profitability.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>In other words, the “big end of town” benefits – at taxpayers’ expense – while the small-scale irrigators lose out.</p>
<h2>Missing water</h2>
<p>Adding insult to injury, the Wentworth Group of Concerned Scientists released a <a href="https://wentworthgroup.org/2020/09/mdb-flows-2020/2020/">detailed report</a> this week showing the basin plan is failing to deliver the water expected, even after accounting for dry weather. Some two trillion litres of water is not in the rivers and streams of the basin and appears to have been consumed – a volume that could be more than <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-09-03/the-mystery-of-the-murray-darlings-vanishing-flows/12612166?nw=0">four times</a> the water in Sydney Harbour.</p>
<p>The Wentworth Group says stream flows may be less than expected because environmental water recovery has been undermined by “water-saving” infrastructure, which reduces the amount of water that would otherwise return to rivers and groundwater. </p>
<p>This infrastructure, on which taxpayers have spent over A$4 billion, has not had the <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S092134492030077X">desired effect</a>. Research has found those who receive infrastructure subsidies increased water extractions by more than those who did not receive subsidies. That’s because farmers who were using water more efficiently often planted thirstier crops.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Dusk at Menindee Lakes in the Murray Darling Basin" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/356467/original/file-20200904-24-1orkxk5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/356467/original/file-20200904-24-1orkxk5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/356467/original/file-20200904-24-1orkxk5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/356467/original/file-20200904-24-1orkxk5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/356467/original/file-20200904-24-1orkxk5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/356467/original/file-20200904-24-1orkxk5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/356467/original/file-20200904-24-1orkxk5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The government took a strategic approach to water buybacks in the Murray Darling Basin.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>We deserve better</h2>
<p>It’s clear taxpayer dollars are much better spent buying back water entitlements, through open tenders, rather than subsidising water infrastructure. We can, and must, do <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/1467-8489.12288">much better</a> with water policy. </p>
<p>Today, the federal government has doubled down on wasteful spending at taxpayer expense – in a time of a COVID-induced recession. </p>
<p>So what is on offer from the Morrison government? Continuing to ignore its own experts’ advice and delivering yet more ineffective subsidies for water infrastructure. Our rivers, our communities, and all Australians deserve much better.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/while-towns-run-dry-cotton-extracts-5-sydney-harbours-worth-of-murray-darling-water-a-year-its-time-to-reset-the-balance-133342">While towns run dry, cotton extracts 5 Sydney Harbours' worth of Murray Darling water a year. It's time to reset the balance</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/145613/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Quentin Grafton received funding from the MDBA in 2010. </span></em></p>The government has chosen a route not backed by evidence, and which will deliver a bad deal to taxpayers and the environment.Quentin Grafton, Director of the Centre for Water Economics, Environment and Policy, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1406332020-06-21T20:07:18Z2020-06-21T20:07:18ZWhy China believed it had a case to hit Australian barley with tariffs<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/342356/original/file-20200617-94060-j9xewa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=35%2C239%2C3958%2C2119&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>China’s landmark investigations into <a href="https://theconversation.com/barley-is-not-a-random-choice-heres-the-real-reason-china-is-taking-on-australia-over-dumping-107271">Australian barley</a> led to the imposition of “anti-dumping” and “anti-subsidy” tariffs of <a href="https://www.afr.com/companies/agriculture/china-pulls-the-trigger-on-australian-barley-tariffs-20200518-p54u5w">80.5%</a> in May, threatening an Australian export market worth $A600 million a year.</p>
<p>China says it made its own calculations on the extent to which Australia subsidised barley after Australian authorities failed to give it all the information it needed in the form it requested.</p>
<p>It set out its findings on subsidies in a report at present only <a href="http://images.mofcom.gov.cn/trb/202005/20200518201515833.pdf">available in Chinese</a>.</p>
<p>One was that Australian officials “did not comply” with its requirements in relation to the Sustainable Rural Water Use and Infrastructure Program. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/342034/original/file-20200616-23276-19loqir.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/342034/original/file-20200616-23276-19loqir.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/342034/original/file-20200616-23276-19loqir.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=708&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/342034/original/file-20200616-23276-19loqir.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=708&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/342034/original/file-20200616-23276-19loqir.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=708&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/342034/original/file-20200616-23276-19loqir.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=890&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/342034/original/file-20200616-23276-19loqir.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=890&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/342034/original/file-20200616-23276-19loqir.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=890&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://images.mofcom.gov.cn/trb/202005/20200518201515833.pdf">'The Australian government reported the overall situation in the answer sheet, but did not comply with the requirements of the investigating authority'</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Australia disputes that conclusion.</p>
<p>At first glance the possibility that Sustainable Rural Water Use and Infrastructure Program could have had anything to do with subsidising barely exports seems baseless. </p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.mdba.gov.au/basin-plan/plan-murray-darling-basin">Murray Darling Basin Plan</a>, of which the Sustainable Rural Water Use and Infrastructure Program is a part, is a long-running program aiming to remedy a century of over-exploitation of water. </p>
<p>It includes no discussion of production targets, export volumes or anything else that might be expected to set off trade alarm bells.</p>
<h2>Plan more than environmental</h2>
<p>But the plan and its A$13 billion budget is about more than the environment. </p>
<p>It originally prioritised the environment, but in 2010 its goal was <a href="https://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/murray-darling-basin-boss-mike-taylor-resigns/news-story/14d3b3075e9d4b8f3a5d6b5194f4e933">explicitly changed</a> to address a <a href="http://www5.austlii.edu.au/au/legis/cth/consol_act/wa200783/s3.html">triple bottom line</a> of economic, social and environmental concerns.</p>
<p>From there, its management became a major economic and political issue.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/while-towns-run-dry-cotton-extracts-5-sydney-harbours-worth-of-murray-darling-water-a-year-its-time-to-reset-the-balance-133342">While towns run dry, cotton extracts 5 Sydney Harbours' worth of Murray Darling water a year. It's time to reset the balance</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Scandals surround <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/environment/sustainability/barnaby-joyce-s-department-paid-tens-of-millions-too-much-for-water-20180321-p4z5dd.html">huge payments</a> for dubious water rights, <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13241583.2019.1579965">infrastructure spending</a> that doesn’t actually save water, and massive subsidisation of <a href="https://www.tai.org.au/content/dam-shame-new-dams-politicians-won-t-talk-about">irrigation expansion</a> into areas that were not previously irrigated. </p>
<p>Stories abound of favoured <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2017/oct/26/78m-spent-on-darling-water-buyback-nearly-double-its-valuation">companies</a> or <a href="https://www.tai.org.au/sites/default/files/P699%20Submission%20to%20review%20of%20Barwon-Darling%20Water%20Sharing%20Plan%20%5BWEB%5D.pdf">regions</a> reaping large windfalls at the expense of taxpayers, other farmers, the environment, or all three.</p>
<h2>Administered with ‘habitual’ secrecy</h2>
<p>Australia’s Department of Agriculture says the government fully engaged with China’s investigation, “including providing extensive information on production and commercial information on the Australian barley industry”.</p>
<p>But the department hasn’t always been forthcoming about its operations.</p>
<p>A South Australian <a href="https://www.farmonline.com.au/story/5890475/call-for-basin-plan-pause-to-address-royal-commission-findings/">Royal Commission</a> concluded that its claim to be committed to engaging in public debate and open dialogue should be regarded with “deep suspicion”.</p>
<p>The separate Murray Darling Basin Authority operated with “<a href="https://www.environment.sa.gov.au/files/sharedassets/public/river_murray/basin_plan/murray-darling-basin-royal-commission-report.pdf">an unfathomable predilection for secrecy</a>”. </p>
<p>The behaviour was “<a href="https://www.environment.sa.gov.au/files/sharedassets/public/river_murray/basin_plan/murray-darling-basin-royal-commission-report.pdf">habitual</a>”, in the assessment of the Royal Commission.</p>
<h2>We might have given China a case</h2>
<p>Even if Australian officials did participate in the Chinese investigation in good faith, the potential for confusion is considerable given the jargon that engulfs both water management and trade law. </p>
<p>Few water managers speak trade law and equally few trade lawyers understand the jargon of the Murray Darling Basin Plan.</p>
<p>From a trade law perspective, although the Sustainable Rural Water Use and Infrastructure Program and the Basin Plan do not explicitly subsidise exports, the fact that much of the Basin’s produce is exported means it could be argued that they distort trade.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-murray-darling-basin-scandal-economists-have-seen-it-coming-for-decades-119989">The Murray-Darling Basin scandal: economists have seen it coming for decades</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>It is open to a country such as China to take action if the program has conferred benefits to an Australian industry and the subsidised exports have caused a material injury to a competing domestic industry. </p>
<p>China alleges this is the case for barley, but a stronger case could perhaps be argued for the Basin’s bigger export crops: <a href="https://www.agriculture.gov.au/abares/research-topics/surveys/irrigation/cotton">cotton</a>, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2019/may/26/tough-nut-to-crack-the-almond-boom-and-its-drain-on-the-murray-darling">almonds</a> and <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-07-08/taxpayers-helping-fund-murray-darling-basin-expansion/11279468">walnuts</a>.</p>
<p>Part of the reason is that the program involves government spending, but it is possible to argue that the implementation of the Basin Plan has also subsidised exporters in another way, by environmental mismanagement. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/australias-watergate-heres-what-taxpayers-need-to-know-about-water-buybacks-115838">Australia's 'watergate': here's what taxpayers need to know about water buybacks</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>The Barwon-Darling has been described by environmental regulators as “<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2019/jul/24/barwon-darling-river-system-collapse-review">an ecosystem in crisis</a>”. Contributing to the crisis has been a system that allocates scarce water to irrigators and diverts huge volumes of floodwater into private dams.</p>
<p>This arguably <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2020/may/29/nsw-water-officials-knew-decades-of-unmeasured-floodplain-harvesting-by-irrigators-was-illegal">illegal</a> practice of “floodplain harvesting” provides huge benefits to cotton exporters. </p>
<p>It is uncertain whether China’s barley decision will bring about changes to Australian water management that downstream communities, irrigators, Indigenous nations and environment groups <a href="https://www.tai.org.au/sites/default/files/MDB%20Open%20Letter%20%5BPRESS%5D_0.pdf">have long called for</a>.</p>
<p>It would help if water regulators explained what they were doing in terms that can be understood by ordinary Australians and Chinese trade experts alike.</p>
<hr>
<p><em>Contributing to this article were Maryanne Slattery, a former director at the Murray Darling Basin Authority and a director of water consultancy Slattery Johnson, Rod Campbell, Research Director at <a href="http://www.tai.org.au/">the Australia Institute</a> and Allan Behm, director of the Australia Institute’s International and Security Affairs program.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/140633/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Weihuan Zhou does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>China believed the Murray Darling Basin Plan was about more than the environment. It wanted to know how much more.Weihuan Zhou, Senior Lecturer and member of Herbert Smith Freehills CIBEL Centre, Faculty of Law, UNSW Sydney, UNSW SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1390242020-05-21T20:01:47Z2020-05-21T20:01:47ZAustralia, it’s time to talk about our water emergency<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/336455/original/file-20200520-152338-sb23lb.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=5%2C0%2C3429%2C2286&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Dean Lewins/AAP</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The last bushfire season showed Australians they can no longer pretend climate change will not affect them. But there’s another climate change influence we must also face up to: increasingly scarce water on our continent. </p>
<p>Under climate change, rainfall will become more unpredictable. Extreme weather events such as cyclones will be more intense. This will challenge water managers already struggling to respond to Australia’s natural boom and bust of droughts and floods. </p>
<p>Thirty years since Australia’s water reform project began, it’s clear our efforts have largely failed. Drought-stricken rural towns have literally run out of water. Despite the recent rains, the Murray Darling river system is being run dry and struggles to support the communities that depend on it.</p>
<p>We must find another way. So let’s start the conversation.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/336464/original/file-20200520-152284-bwnzan.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/336464/original/file-20200520-152284-bwnzan.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/336464/original/file-20200520-152284-bwnzan.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/336464/original/file-20200520-152284-bwnzan.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/336464/original/file-20200520-152284-bwnzan.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/336464/original/file-20200520-152284-bwnzan.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/336464/original/file-20200520-152284-bwnzan.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">It’s time for a new national discussion about water policy.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Joe Castro/AAP</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>How did we get here?</h2>
<p>Sadly, inequitable water outcomes in Australia are not new.</p>
<p>The first water “reform” occurred when European settlers acquired water sources from First Peoples without consent or compensation. Overlaying this dispossession, British common law gave new settlers land access rights to freshwater. These later converted into state-owned rights, and are now allocated as privately held water entitlements.</p>
<p>Some 200 years later, the first steps towards long-term water reform arguably began in the 1990s. The process accelerated during the Millennium Drought and in 2004 led to the <a href="https://www.pc.gov.au/inquiries/completed/water-reform/national-water-initiative-agreement-2004.pdf">National Water Initiative</a>, an intergovernmental water agreement. This was followed in 2007 by a federal <a href="https://www.legislation.gov.au/Series/C2007A00137">Water Act</a>, upending exclusive state jurisdiction over water.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/while-towns-run-dry-cotton-extracts-5-sydney-harbours-worth-of-murray-darling-water-a-year-its-time-to-reset-the-balance-133342">While towns run dry, cotton extracts 5 Sydney Harbours' worth of Murray Darling water a year. It's time to reset the balance</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Under the National Water Initiative, state and territory water plans were to be verified through water accounting to ensure “adequate measurement, monitoring and reporting systems” across the country.</p>
<p>This would have boosted public and investor confidence in the amount of water being traded, extracted and recovered – both for the environment and the public good.</p>
<p>This vision has not been realised. Instead, a narrow view now dominates in which water is valuable only when extracted, and water reform is about <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.resconrec.2020.104755">subsidising water infrastructure</a> such as dams, to enable this extraction.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/336465/original/file-20200520-152292-2a8c88.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/336465/original/file-20200520-152292-2a8c88.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/336465/original/file-20200520-152292-2a8c88.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/336465/original/file-20200520-152292-2a8c88.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/336465/original/file-20200520-152292-2a8c88.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/336465/original/file-20200520-152292-2a8c88.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/336465/original/file-20200520-152292-2a8c88.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The National Water Initiative has failed.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Dean Lewins/AAP</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Why we should all care</h2>
<p>In the current drought, rural towns have literally run out of fresh drinking water. These towns are not just dots on a map. They are communities whose very existence is now threatened.</p>
<p>In some small towns, drinking water can taste unpleasant or contain high levels of nitrate, threatening the health of babies. Drinking water in some remote Indigenous communities is not always treated, and the quality rarely checked. </p>
<p>In the Murray-Darling Basin, poor management and low rainfall have caused dry rivers, mass fish kills, and distress in Aboriginal communities. Key aspects of the basin plan have not been implemented. This, coupled with bushfire damage, has caused long-term ecological harm. </p>
<h2>How do we fix the water emergency?</h2>
<p>Rivers, lakes and wetlands must have enough water at the right time. Only then will the needs of humans and the environment be met equitably - including access to and use of water by First Peoples.</p>
<p>Water for the environment and water for irrigation is not a zero-sum trade-off. Without healthy rivers, irrigation farming and rural communities cannot survive. </p>
<p>A national conversation on water reform is needed. It should recognise and include First Peoples’ values and knowledge of land, water and fire. </p>
<p>Our water brief, <a href="https://openresearch-repository.anu.edu.au/handle/1885/204069">Water Reform For All</a>,
proposes six principles to build a national water dialogue:</p>
<blockquote>
<ol>
<li>establish shared visions and goals</li>
<li>develop clarity of roles and responsibilities</li>
<li>implement adaptation as a way to respond to an escalation of stresses, including climate change and governance failures</li>
<li>invest in advanced technology to monitor, predict and understand changes in water availability</li>
<li>integrate bottom-up and community-based adaptation, including from Indigenous communities, into improved water governance arrangements</li>
<li>undertake policy experiments to test new ways of managing water for all </li>
</ol>
</blockquote>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/336466/original/file-20200520-152298-10l7lkb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/336466/original/file-20200520-152298-10l7lkb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/336466/original/file-20200520-152298-10l7lkb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/336466/original/file-20200520-152298-10l7lkb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/336466/original/file-20200520-152298-10l7lkb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/336466/original/file-20200520-152298-10l7lkb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/336466/original/file-20200520-152298-10l7lkb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Darling River is in poor health.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Dean Lewins/AAP</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Ask the right questions</h2>
<p>As researchers, we don’t have all the answers on how to create a sustainable, equitable water future. No-one does. But in any national conversation, we believe these fundamental questions must be asked:</p>
<blockquote>
<ol>
<li><p>who is responsible for water governance? How do decisions and actions of one group affect access and availability of water for others? </p></li>
<li><p>what volumes of water are extracted from surface and groundwater systems? Where, when, by whom and for what?</p></li>
<li><p>what can we predict about a future climate and other long-term drivers of change? </p></li>
<li><p>how can we better understand and measure the multiple values that water holds for communities and society?</p></li>
<li><p>where do our visions for the future of water align? Where do they differ?</p></li>
<li><p>what principles, protocols and processes will help deliver the water reform needed?</p></li>
<li><p>how do existing rules and institutions constrain, or enable, efforts to achieve a shared vision of a sustainable water future?</p></li>
<li><p>how do we integrate new knowledge, such as water availability under climate change, into our goals?</p></li>
<li><p>what restitution is needed in relation to water and Country for First Peoples?</p></li>
<li><p>what economic sectors and processes would be better suited to a water-scarce future, and how might we foster them?</p></li>
</ol>
</blockquote>
<h2>Water reform for all</h2>
<p>These questions, if part of a national conversation, would reinvigorate the water debate and help put Australia on track to a sustainable water future.</p>
<p>Now is the time to start the discussion. Long-accepted policy approaches in support of sustainable water futures are in question. In the Murray-Darling Basin, some states even question the value of catchment-wide management. The formula for water-sharing between states is <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2019/dec/14/water-wars-will-politics-destroy-the-murray-darling-basin-plan-and-the-river-system-itself">under attack</a>. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/its-official-expert-review-rejects-nsw-plan-to-let-seawater-flow-into-the-murray-river-138291">It's official: expert review rejects NSW plan to let seawater flow into the Murray River</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Even science that previously underpinned water reform is <a href="http://www.water-alternatives.org/index.php/alldoc/articles/vol13/v13issue1/561-a13-1-1/file">being questioned</a></p>
<p>We must return to basics, reassess what’s sensible and feasible, and debate new ways forward. </p>
<p>We are not naive. All of us have been involved in water reform and some of us, like many others, suffer from reform fatigue.</p>
<p>But without a fresh debate, Australia’s water emergency will only get worse. Reform can – and must – happen, for the benefit of all Australians.</p>
<hr>
<p><em>The following contributed to this piece and co-authored the report on which it was based: Daniel Connell, Katherine Daniell, Joseph Guillaume, Lorrae van Kerkoff, Aparna Lal, Ehsan Nabavi, Jamie Pittock, Katherine Taylor, Paul Tregoning, and John Williams</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/139024/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Quentin Grafton received funding from The Murray-Darling Basin Authority in 2010-11. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Matthew Colloff has participated in projects funded by the Murray-Darling Basin Authority and the Commonwealth Environmental Water Holder. He is affiliated with the Wentworth Group of Concerned Scientists</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Paul Wyrwoll and Virginia Marshall do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Thirty years since Australia’s water reform project began, it’s clear our efforts have largely failed. We must find another way.Quentin Grafton, Director of the Centre for Water Economics, Environment and Policy, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National UniversityMatthew Colloff, Honorary Senior Lecturer, Australian National UniversityPaul Wyrwoll, Research fellow, Australian National UniversityVirginia Marshall, Inaugural Indigenous Postdoctoral Fellow, Australian National UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1382912020-05-12T04:47:16Z2020-05-12T04:47:16ZIt’s official: expert review rejects NSW plan to let seawater flow into the Murray River<p>A major independent review has confirmed freshwater flows are vital to maintaining the health of the Murray River’s lower lakes, striking a blow to demands by New South Wales that seawater flow in.</p>
<p>The review, <a href="https://www.mdba.gov.au/basin-plan-roll-out/monitoring-evaluation/lower-lakes-independent-science-review">released today</a>, was led by the CSIRO and commissioned by the Murray Darling Basin Authority. It examined hundreds of scientific studies into the lower lakes region of South Australia, through which the Murray River flows before reaching the ocean.</p>
<p>The review recommends managing the lakes with freshwater, not seawater. More importantly, it highlights how climate change and upstream farming is reducing the flow of water for the environment in the lower lakes.</p>
<p>These findings are critically important. They show the severe health threat still facing the river system and its internationally important wetlands. They also cast doubt on whether the A$13 billion basin plan can achieve all its aims.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/334210/original/file-20200512-66707-1bjqq2a.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/334210/original/file-20200512-66707-1bjqq2a.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/334210/original/file-20200512-66707-1bjqq2a.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/334210/original/file-20200512-66707-1bjqq2a.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/334210/original/file-20200512-66707-1bjqq2a.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/334210/original/file-20200512-66707-1bjqq2a.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/334210/original/file-20200512-66707-1bjqq2a.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A plan to save the parched Murray Darling system may not succeed.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Dean Lewins/AAP</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>A barrage of criticism</h2>
<p>The Murray Darling river system runs from Queensland, through NSW, the ACT and Victoria. In South Australia the River Murray discharges into two large lakes, Alexandrina and Albert, before flowing into the 130 kilometre-long Coorong lagoon, through the Murray Mouth and into the ocean. </p>
<p>Since 1940 five low dams, <a href="https://portal.engineersaustralia.org.au/system/files/engineering-heritage-australia/nomination-title/River_Murray_Barrages_Nomination.pdf">or barrages</a>, have stopped seawater flowing into the lakes from the Murray Mouth and Coorong, and raised the lakes’ water level. </p>
<p>NSW wants the barrages lifted to allow seawater back into Lake Alexandrina, to free up freshwater for agriculture upstream.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/6-000-years-of-climate-history-an-ancient-lake-in-the-murray-darling-has-yielded-its-secrets-133685">6,000 years of climate history: an ancient lake in the Murray-Darling has yielded its secrets</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>In December 2019, NSW Nationals John Barilaro said: “I refuse to let regional communities die while we wash productive water into the Great Australian Bite (sic), 1000km away”. Irrigation advocates have <a href="https://www.adelaidenow.com.au/news/irrigators-campaign-to-remove-barrages-from-murray-mouth/news-story/418af285c8ab212c49a6ef344deba2a8">backed his calls</a>.</p>
<p>Victoria has also <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/csiro-s-freshwater-finding-for-murray-mouth-set-to-reignite-state-tensions-20200511-p54rw4.html">questioned</a> whether the lower lakes can continue to be kept fresh, given the water scarcity plaguing the entire river system.</p>
<p>But today’s review confirmed the lower lakes were largely a freshwater ecosystem prior to European occupation. It said removing the barrages would cause significant ecological and socioeconomic harm, and would not lead to water savings if the basin plan targets are to be met.</p>
<h2>The Murray Mouth is choking</h2>
<p>The review cited <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/rra.3551">research</a> we published this month, which concluded it was impossible to achieve the basin plan target to keep the Murray Mouth open 95% of the time.</p>
<p>This is because Murray Darling Basin Authority modelling did not factor in the power of the Southern Ocean to move sand into the Murray Mouth, which is now choked. Dredging will be required most of the time to keep the Murray Mouth open and maintain the ecology of the Coorong. </p>
<p>The Coorong and Lakes Alexandrina and Albert are a wetland of international importance under the <a href="https://rsis.ramsar.org/ris/321">Ramsar Convention</a>.</p>
<p>The review found removing the barrages would significantly change the freshwater character of the site, which we have an international obligation to maintain for the sake of waterbirds, fisheries and threatened species.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/damning-royal-commission-report-leaves-no-doubt-that-we-all-lose-if-the-murray-darling-basin-plan-fails-110908">Damning royal commission report leaves no doubt that we all lose if the Murray-Darling Basin Plan fails</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>This is becoming harder during periods when freshwater inflows are scarce. In the Millennium Drought for example, lake levels fell exposing highly acidic mudflats. In other areas, the waters became more salty. </p>
<p>After the basin plan was adopted in 2012, the condition of the lower lakes improved when the Millennium Drought broke and environmental flows were delivered, sustaining the system in the current drought. But very little of those flows enter the sea, except during floods.</p>
<p>The system of barrages in the lower lakes consist of 593 gates. Using official data, we calculate that for 70% of the time since 2007, fewer than ten gates have been open to the sea. For one-third of the time, none were open, indicating there is insufficient water to sustain fisheries and flush salt to the ocean.</p>
<p>Our research concludes that without the barrages the sand banks will reduce the volume of water flowing through the Murray Mouth. The tides would not be strong enough to keep the lakes flushed so water quality would decline. No barrages means lower lake levels and exposed mudflats, generating sulphuric acid.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/334219/original/file-20200512-66681-1sbw2ek.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/334219/original/file-20200512-66681-1sbw2ek.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=404&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/334219/original/file-20200512-66681-1sbw2ek.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=404&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/334219/original/file-20200512-66681-1sbw2ek.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=404&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/334219/original/file-20200512-66681-1sbw2ek.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=508&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/334219/original/file-20200512-66681-1sbw2ek.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=508&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/334219/original/file-20200512-66681-1sbw2ek.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=508&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Aerial view of the Murray River barrages, circa 1940.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">State Library of South Australia</span></span>
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<h2>An uncertain future</h2>
<p>The review reinforces the South Australian government’s position that the lakes should be maintained with freshwater. It also obliges the federal government to implement the basin plan in its current form, despite NSW’s demands for changes. </p>
<p>The final report also highlighted how climate change will make management of the Coorong, Lower Lakes and Murray Mouth “increasingly challenging” and said adaptation options were needed for the entire river system.</p>
<p>By the end of this century, rising seas may <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/rra.3551">flow over the barrages</a>. Maintaining freshwater inflows and the barrages buys us time, but we need a serious national conversation about how to manage this challenge.</p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/australias-inland-rivers-are-the-pulse-of-the-outback-by-2070-theyll-be-unrecognisable-136492">Australia’s inland rivers are the pulse of the outback. By 2070, they’ll be unrecognisable</a>
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<p>The federal and South Australian governments recently announced a <a href="https://www.environment.sa.gov.au/topics/coorong/coorong-partnership">Coorong Partnership</a> to enable local communities and groups participate in programs to improve management of the lagoon. This is timely and should be expanded to cover the broader Lower Lakes and Murray Mouth regions.</p>
<p>Freshwater flowing from the headwaters to the sea is vital for the health of the Murray-Darling Basin as a whole. Today’s report should be the start of the national discussion on shoring up the health of Australia’s most important river system in the face of an uncertain future.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/138291/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jamie Pittock received funding from the National Climate Change Adaptation Research Facility a decade ago to research climate change adaptation in the Coorong and Lower Lakes. Jamie Pittock is a member of the Wentworth Group of Concerned Scientists and advises a number of Australian environmental organisations.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Bruce Thom is affiliated with Wentworth Group </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Celine Steinfeld is Acting Director of the Wentworth Group of Concerned Scientists.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Eytan Rocheta is a policy analyst with the Wentworth Group of Concerned Scientists.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Nick Harvey is affiliated with The Australian Coastal Society. </span></em></p>The review examined hundreds of studies and concluded the lower Murray should remain a freshwater ecosystem, or severe environmental and economic damage will result.Jamie Pittock, Professor, Fenner School of Environment & Society, Australian National UniversityBruce Thom, Emeritus Professor, University of SydneyCeline Steinfeld, Director, Wentworth Group of Concerned Scientists & Adjunct Lecturer, UNSW SydneyEytan Rocheta, Policy Analyst, Wentworth Group of Concerned Scientists & Adjunct Associate Lecturer at UNSW Sydney, UNSW SydneyNicholas Harvey, University of AdelaideLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1365142020-04-17T04:29:12Z2020-04-17T04:29:12ZNo water, no leadership: new Murray Darling Basin report reveals states’ climate gamble<p>A <a href="https://www.igmdb.gov.au/reviews">report released today</a> investigating how states share water in the Murray Darling Basin describes a fascinating contrast between state cultures – in particular, risk-averse South Australia and buccaneering New South Wales. </p>
<p>Perhaps surprising is the report’s sparse discussion of the <a href="https://www.mdba.gov.au/basin-plan/plan-murray-darling-basin">Murray Darling Basin Plan</a>, which has been the focus of irrigators’ anger and denunciation by National Party leaders: Deputy Prime Minister Michael McCormack and NSW Deputy Premier John Barilaro. </p>
<p>In general terms, the Murray Darling Basin Plan was <a href="https://www.sbs.com.au/news/why-is-the-murray-darling-basin-so-important-and-how-did-we-end-up-at-this-point">originally intended</a> to make water management in the Murray Darling Basin more environmentally sustainable. Its critics see it as a restraint on development, and complain it has taken water away from irrigators during a time of extreme drought.</p>
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<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/while-towns-run-dry-cotton-extracts-5-sydney-harbours-worth-of-murray-darling-water-a-year-its-time-to-reset-the-balance-133342">While towns run dry, cotton extracts 5 Sydney Harbours' worth of Murray Darling water a year. It's time to reset the balance</a>
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<p>In response to <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2019/dec/14/water-wars-will-politics-destroy-the-murray-darling-basin-plan-and-the-river-system-itself">McCormack and Barliaro’s criticisms</a> of the plan in late 2019, federal water minister (and senior National Party figure) David Littleproud commissioned Mick Keelty as Interim Inspector General of MDB Water Resources. </p>
<p>For the new report, Keelty investigated the changing distribution of “inflows” – water flowing into the River Murray in the southern states. </p>
<p>Climate change has brought the inflow to just a trickle. This dramatic reduction over the past 20 years is what Keelty has described as “the most telling finding”. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-murray-darling-basin-scandal-economists-have-seen-it-coming-for-decades-119989">The Murray-Darling Basin scandal: economists have seen it coming for decades</a>
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<p>He also investigated the reserve policies under which the three states choose – or don’t choose – to hold back water in Hume and Dartmouth Dams to manage future droughts.</p>
<p>Keelty says there’s little transparency or clarity about how much water states are allocated under the Murray Darling Basin Agreement (the arrangement for sharing water between the states which underpins the Basin Plan). This failure in communication and leadership across such a vital system must change. </p>
<h2>Sharing water across three states</h2>
<p>One major finding of Keelty’s inquiry is that the federal government has little power to change the <a href="https://www.legislation.gov.au/Details/C2014C00194/Html/Text#_Toc390870752">MDB Agreement</a> between the three states, which was first approved in 1914-15. Any amendment requires the approval of all three governments.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1250967156025483265"}"></div></p>
<p>To increase the volume of water provided to NSW irrigators, South Australia and Victoria would need to agree to reduce the volumes supplied to their own entitlement holders. That will not happen. </p>
<p>Why has the agreement lasted so long? </p>
<p>Over the past century it has proved robust under a wide range of conditions. Its central principle is to share water with a proportion-of-available-flow formula, giving each state a percentage of whatever is available, no matter whether it’s a lot, or not much.</p>
<p>After receiving its share of the River Murray flows, each state is then free to manage its allocation as it wishes. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/is-the-murray-darling-basin-plan-broken-81613">Is the Murray-Darling Basin Plan broken?</a>
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</em>
</p>
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<p>Historically, South Australia and Victoria have chosen to reserve or hold back a larger proportion of their shares each year in Hume and Dartmouth dams to use in future droughts, compared with New South Wales.</p>
<p>In part this difference derives from the long-term water needs of orchards and vines in South Australia and Victoria, in contrast to annual crops such as rice and cotton in New South Wales. </p>
<p>As a result, <a href="https://www.environment.sa.gov.au/topics/river-murray/about-river-murray/water-allocations-and-announcements/how-water-is-allocated">South Australia</a> and <a href="https://nvrm.net.au/seasonal-determinations/current">Victoria</a> have a higher proportion of high security entitlements. That means they receive 100% most years. Only in extreme drought years is their allocation reduced. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.industry.nsw.gov.au/water/allocations-availability">NSW</a>, on the other hand, has a higher proportion of low security general entitlements. In dry and normal years they receive a proportion of their entitlements. Only in wet years do they get the full 100%. (These differences in reliability are reflected in the cost of entitlements on the water market.) </p>
<h2>Reliability of water supply</h2>
<p>What’s more, each state makes its own decision about how its state allocation is shared between its entitlement holders (95% of water goes to irrigators the rest supplies towns and industry). </p>
<p>South Australia chooses to distribute a much smaller proportion to its entitlement holders than New South Wales. It also restricted the number of licences in the 1970s. That combination ensures a very high level of reliability in supply. Victoria took a similar approach. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/5-ways-the-government-can-clean-up-the-murray-darling-basin-plan-116265">5 ways the government can clean up the Murray-Darling Basin Plan</a>
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<p>But New South Wales did not restrict licences until the 1990s. It also recognised unused entitlements, so further reducing the frequency of years in which any individual would receive their full allocation of water. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1250970963857911809"}"></div></p>
<p>When climate change is taken into account these differences between the three states result in their irrigators having significantly different risk profiles.</p>
<h2>The climate change threat to the basin is very real</h2>
<p>Despite climate denial in the National Party, the threat is very real in the MDB. The report describes a massive reduction in inflows over the past 20 years, approximately half compared with the previous century. One drought could be an aberration, but two begins to look like a pattern. </p>
<p>The report also suggests that in many cases irrigator expectations of what should be normal were formed during the wet period Australia experienced between the second world war and the 1990s. </p>
<p>Added to this have been business decisions by many irrigators to sell their entitlements and rely on the water market, a business model based on what now seems like unrealistic inflow expectations.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/dont-blame-the-murray-darling-basin-plan-its-climate-and-economic-change-driving-farmers-out-128048">Don't blame the Murray-Darling Basin Plan. It's climate and economic change driving farmers out</a>
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<p>In effect, successive New South Wales governments – a significant part of the state’s irrigation sector in the southern part of the state and the National Party – gambled against the climate and are now paying a high price. </p>
<p>In desperation, they’re focusing on alternative sources. This includes the <a href="https://waterregister.vic.gov.au/about/9-water-entitlements">water in Hume and Dartmouth</a> held under the reserves policy of the two other states; environmental entitlements managed by <a href="https://www.directory.gov.au/portfolios/agriculture-water-and-environment/department-agriculture-water-and-environment/commonwealth-environmental-water-holder">the Commonwealth Environmental Water Holder</a>; the <a href="https://www.thecourier.com.au/story/5969693/south-aust-water-disappears-into-thin-air/">very large volume</a> of water lost to evaporation in the lower lakes in South Australia; and the possibility of savings resulting from <a href="https://www.mdba.gov.au/river-murray-system/river-murray-operations/joint-management-river-murray">changes to management</a> of the system by the Murray-Darling Basin Authority.</p>
<h2>Failure in leadership and communication</h2>
<p>For reasons already outlined, the state reserves policy is not likely to change and use of the Commonwealth Environmental Water Holder environmental water entitlements would not be permitted under current legislation. </p>
<p>Management of the lower lakes is being reviewed through <a href="https://www.csiro.au/en/News/News-releases/2019/Lower-lakes-science">another investigation </a> so is not discussed in the report. The report also states that management of the MDB Authority is subject to regular detailed assessment by state governments, and they have assessed its performance as satisfactory.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/a-referendum-wont-save-the-murray-darling-basin-116750">A referendum won't save the Murray-Darling Basin</a>
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</em>
</p>
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<p>However the report was critical of the performance of all MDB governments with regard to leadership and communications suggesting that failures in those areas were largely responsible for the public concern which triggered its investigation.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/136514/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Daniel Connell does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>There’s little transparency or clarity about how much water states are allocated. This failure in communication and leadership across such a vital system must change.Daniel Connell, Research Fellow, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1333422020-04-13T19:49:37Z2020-04-13T19:49:37ZWhile towns run dry, cotton extracts 5 Sydney Harbours’ worth of Murray Darling water a year. It’s time to reset the balance<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/324157/original/file-20200330-65518-1leq5nz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The rains have finally arrived in the Northern Murray Darling Basin. Hopefully, this drought-easing water will flow all the way down to the parched communities and degraded habitats of the lower Darling. </p>
<p>How much water goes <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-02-28/water-flows-in-first-major-test-of-murray-darling-basin-plan/12010166">downstream</a>, however, does not just depend on how much it has rained. </p>
<p>It also greatly depends on how much is extracted and consumed upstream, and the rules and enforcement around these water extractions.</p>
<p>Simplistic or knee-jerk responses to water insecurity, such as banning irrigation for “thirsty crops” such as cotton, will not fix the water woes of the basin. </p>
<p>The harder and longer path is to <a href="https://murraydeclaration.org/">deliver real water reform</a> as was agreed to by all governments in the <a href="https://www.pc.gov.au/inquiries/completed/water-reform/national-water-initiative-agreement-2004.pdf">2004 National Water Initiative</a> and that includes transparent water planning enshrined in law.</p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-sweet-relief-of-rain-after-bushfires-threatens-disaster-for-our-rivers-129449">The sweet relief of rain after bushfires threatens disaster for our rivers</a>
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</em>
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<h2>Basin cotton irrigators extract about five Sydney Harbours’ worth a year</h2>
<p>Irrigation accounts for about <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/1467-8489.12288">70% of all surface water extracted in the basin</a>. </p>
<p>Australia’s water accounts tell us that in 2017-18, basin cotton irrigators extracted some 2,500 billion litres (about five Sydney Harbours’ worth) or equivalent to about 35% of all the water extracted for irrigation. </p>
<p>Most of this water was extracted <a href="https://www.mdba.gov.au/discover-basin/landscape/geography">in the Northern Basin</a> (covering southern Queensland and northern New South Wales). But increasingly cotton is becoming a preferred crop in the Southern Basin (southern NSW to South Australia). </p>
<p>Overall, the area of land in cotton and the water extracted for cotton increased by 4% in 2017-18 relative to 2016-17.</p>
<p>Cotton is a thirsty crop. According to the <a href="https://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/mf/4618.0">Australian Bureau of Statistics</a> cotton uses, on average, more than 7 million litres (or about three Olympic-sized swimming pools) per hectare. </p>
<p>At a global scale, the volume of water extracted by cotton irrigators to produce one kilogram of cotton fabric averages <a href="https://waterfootprint.org/media/downloads/Assessm_water_footprint_cotton_India.pdf">more than 3,000 litres</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/325561/original/file-20200406-196131-dkvkcn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/325561/original/file-20200406-196131-dkvkcn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/325561/original/file-20200406-196131-dkvkcn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=387&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/325561/original/file-20200406-196131-dkvkcn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=387&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/325561/original/file-20200406-196131-dkvkcn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=387&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/325561/original/file-20200406-196131-dkvkcn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=486&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/325561/original/file-20200406-196131-dkvkcn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=486&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/325561/original/file-20200406-196131-dkvkcn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=486&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Cotton is a thirsty crop.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Increased water efficiency: good news for some, bad news for others</h2>
<p>Concerns over how much water cotton uses, and the high price of water in the basin, has incentivised cotton farmers to increase their cotton yield (in tonnes) per million litres of water extracted. </p>
<p>This has been achieved with improved genetics, management and more high-tech irrigation methods. According to Cotton Australia, <a href="https://cottonaustralia.com.au/cottons-water-use">much less water (only 19%) is flowing back into streams and groundwater from water applied to cotton fields</a> than two decades ago, when the return flows were 43% of the water applied. </p>
<p><a href="https://science.sciencemag.org/content/361/6404/748">Increased irrigation efficiency</a> is good news for cotton irrigators, especially those that received some of the <a href="https://www.annualreviews.org/doi/abs/10.1146/annurev-resource-100517-023039">A$4 billion in public money</a> already spent to increase irrigation efficiency in the basin. But it is bad news for downstream irrigators, communities and the environment. </p>
<p>This is because a much greater proportion of the water extracted by cotton farmers now gets consumed as evapo-transpiration, and thus is <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13241583.2019.1579965">unavailable for anyone or anything else</a>.</p>
<h2>We need to change the rules of the game</h2>
<p>Given these cotton facts, would banning the growing of cotton in Australia increase the water available? No – because the problem is not cotton irrigation per se, but rather the “rules of the game” of the who, how, and when water is extracted. These water sharing rules are determined at a state level in what are called <a href="http://www.water.nsw.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0006/549024/wsp_barwon_darling_background_document.pdf">Water Sharing Plans</a>. </p>
<p>Proper water planning is the only way to ensure a fair deal, deliver on the intent of the 2012 <a href="https://www.mdba.gov.au/basin-plan/plan-murray-darling-basin">Basin Plan</a> and keep levels of water extraction at <a href="https://www.sbs.com.au/news/why-is-the-murray-darling-basin-so-important-and-how-did-we-end-up-at-this-point">sustainable levels</a>.</p>
<p>Water sharing plans are supposed to be consistent with the 2012 Basin Plan. But NSW has, so far, failed to provide its plans for auditing by the Murray-Darling Basin Authority, missing the key July 1, 2019 deadline. </p>
<p>Following an <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/4corners/pumped/8727826">expose of alleged water theft in July 2017</a>, the NSW government created a <a href="https://www.industry.nsw.gov.au/natural-resources-access-regulator/about-nrar">specialised agency</a>, the Natural Resources Access Regulator, that has greatly helped water monitoring and compliance in NSW. Despite its best efforts, there is still inadequate metering in the Northern Basin. And across the basin as a whole, most groundwater extractions are not properly monitored.</p>
<p>The actual rules about how much water can be extracted are substantially <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/07900627.2019.1674132?needAccess=true">influenced by some irrigators</a> in the consultation process before plans are implemented. </p>
<p>Such influence has resulted in some water sharing plans favouring upstream irrigators at the expense of downstream communities, such as <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-12-19/walgett-has-two-rivers-but-no-water-left-to-drink/10558428">Walgett</a> and <a href="https://www.thesaturdaypaper.com.au/news/rural/2019/03/09/wilcannia-the-town-with-no-water/15520500007800">Wilcannia</a>. These towns have been left high and dry despite the fact NSW law gives priority to town water supplies over other water uses.</p>
<p>According to the NSW Natural Resources Commission, the current Barwon-Darling Water Sharing Plan “effectively prioritises upstream water users” and also does not provide protection for environmental water from extraction. </p>
<p>The Natural Resources Commission also observed that extraction permitted under the plan:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>has affected those communities and landholders reliant on the river for domestic and stock water supplies, town water supply, community and social needs.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>A consultant’s report from 2019, written for the NSW government, also found no evidence in the Barwon-Darling water planning processes of reporting on performance indicators such as changes in stream flow regimes, ecological values of key water sources or water utility (for town supply) access requirements. </p>
<p>Sadly, the problem of <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/politics/nsw/damning-disappointing-debacle-in-state-s-water-sharing-plans-20200218-p541xg.html">poor water planning</a> is not exclusive to the Barwon-Darling, but exists in other basin catchments in NSW, and beyond.</p>
<h2>Holding governments responsible</h2>
<p>Any effective solution to the water emergency in the basin must, therefore, <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/how-would-you-like-to-handle-it-the-minister-the-irrigators-and-a-flood-20200218-p541yv.html">hold governments responsible</a> for their water plans and decisions. This requires that a “who, what, how and when” of water be made transparent through an independent water auditing, monitoring and compliance process.</p>
<p>Simplistic responses to water insecurity, such as banning irrigation for cotton, will not fix the water woes of the basin. The harder and longer path is to <a href="https://murraydeclaration.org/">deliver real water reform</a> as was agreed to by all governments in the <a href="https://www.pc.gov.au/inquiries/completed/water-reform/national-water-initiative-agreement-2004.pdf">2004 National Water Initiative</a> and that included transparent water planning enshrined in law.</p>
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<p>
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<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/fish-kills-and-undrinkable-water-heres-what-to-expect-for-the-murray-darling-this-summer-126940">Fish kills and undrinkable water: here's what to expect for the Murray Darling this summer</a>
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<h2>Three things that would make a difference</h2>
<p>As a nation we must <a href="http://www.water-alternatives.org/index.php/alldoc/articles/vol13/v13issue1/561-a13-1-1/file">hold decisionmakers accountable</a> so the rules of the game do not favour the big end of town at the expense, and even the existence, of towns. </p>
<p>We also need to: </p>
<ol>
<li>stop wasting billions on irrigation subsidies that <a href="https://science.sciencemag.org/content/361/6404/748">reduce flows to streams and rivers</a></li>
<li>monitor, measure and audit what is happening to the water extracted and in streams</li>
<li>actually deliver on the key objects of the federal Water Act and state water acts.</li>
</ol>
<p>Enforcing the law of the land would ensure those who have the legal right to get the water first (such as town water supplies) are prioritised in the implementation of water sharing plans. It would mean state water plans are audited and actually deliver environmentally sustainable levels of water extraction.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/133342/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Quentin Grafton received funding from The Murray-Darling Basin Authority in 2010 and 2011 and is a former Chair of the Socio-economics Reference Panel for the Murray-Darling Basin Commission. </span></em></p>Knee-jerk responses to water insecurity won’t fix the basin. The harder and longer path is delivering real water reform, including transparent water planning enshrined in law.Quentin Grafton, Director of the Centre for Water Economics, Environment and Policy, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1330672020-03-05T06:00:16Z2020-03-05T06:00:16ZPolitics with Michelle Grattan: Keith Pitt on the Murray-Darling Basin<p>Appointed minister for resources, water, and northern Australia in the Nationals reshuffle, Keith Pitt was handed a diverse portfolio with some highly contested issues.</p>
<p>As water minister, he’ll soon have a report from Mick Keelty on the Murray-Darling Basin, which could spark more fighting between states, and the ACCC report into water trading, expected at the end of the year.</p>
<p>“We do need to ensure the trading is fair,” he says. “I’m as concerned as anybody else if people are playing the market to their own financial benefit rather than what the purpose of it is.”</p>
<p>“They’ll be caught. And they’ll be punished.”</p>
<p>One of his priorities will be putting his foot on the accelerator to have the Northern Australia Infrastructure Facility get its investment money out faster, after what’s been a slow start, with only some $2 billion of its $5 billion allocated. </p>
<p>“My view’s very straightforward. This is $2 billion worth of capital that can drive jobs and help drive the Australian economy. I want to get it out the door, into projects.” </p>
<p>Pitt’s pet project has long been nuclear energy as a means of clean power supply in Australia. Despite nuclear not being a policy of the government, he is hopeful community attitudes will change.</p>
<p>“I think there’s been some change over recent years… particularly in the younger generations. They’re certainly more concerned about other priorities…and they’re not as concerned about what’s happened in the past with the older type technology”.</p>
<h2>New to podcasts?</h2>
<p>Podcasts are often best enjoyed using a podcast app. All iPhones come with the Apple Podcasts app already installed, or you may want to listen and subscribe on another app such as Pocket Casts (click <a href="http://pca.st/BVa3#t=3m34s">here</a> to listen to Politics with Michelle Grattan on Pocket Casts).</p>
<p>You can also hear it on Stitcher, Spotify or any of the apps below. Just pick a service from one of those listed below and click on the icon to find Politics with Michelle Grattan.</p>
<p><a href="https://itunes.apple.com/au/podcast/politics-with-michelle-grattan/id703425900?mt=2"><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/233721/original/file-20180827-75984-1gfuvlr.png" alt="Listen on Apple Podcasts" width="268" height="68"></a> <a href="https://www.google.com/podcasts?feed=aHR0cHM6Ly90aGVjb252ZXJzYXRpb24uY29tL2F1L3BvZGNhc3RzL3BvbGl0aWNzLXdpdGgtbWljaGVsbGUtZ3JhdHRhbi5yc3M"><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/233720/original/file-20180827-75978-3mdxcf.png" alt="" width="268" height="68"></a></p>
<p><a href="https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/the-conversation-4/politics-with-michelle-grattan"><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/233716/original/file-20180827-75981-pdp50i.png" alt="Stitcher" width="300" height="88"></a> <a href="https://tunein.com/podcasts/News--Politics-Podcasts/Politics-with-Michelle-Grattan-p227852/"><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/233723/original/file-20180827-75984-f0y2gb.png" alt="Listen on TuneIn" width="318" height="125"></a></p>
<p><a href="https://radiopublic.com/politics-with-michelle-grattan-WRElBZ"><img class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-152" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/233717/original/file-20180827-75990-86y5tg.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=268&fit=clip" alt="Listen on RadioPublic" width="268" height="87"></a> <a href="https://open.spotify.com/show/5NkaSQoUERalaLBQAqUOcC"><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/237984/original/file-20180925-149976-1ks72uy.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=268&fit=clip" width="268" height="82"></a></p>
<h2>Additional audio</h2>
<p><a href="http://freemusicarchive.org/music/Lee_Rosevere/The_Big_Loop_-_FML_original_podcast_score/Lee_Rosevere_-_The_Big_Loop_-_FML_original_podcast_score_-_10_A_List_of_Ways_to_Die">A List of Ways to Die</a>, Lee Rosevere, from Free Music Archive.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/133067/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Michelle Grattan does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Keith Pitt, minister for resources, water, and Northern Australia, discusses the NAIF, climate policy, nuclear energy, and the Murray-Darling Basin scheme with Michelle Grattan.Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of CanberraLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1323462020-02-27T19:01:14Z2020-02-27T19:01:14ZLast summer’s fish carnage sparked public outrage. Here’s what has happened since<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/317497/original/file-20200227-24651-ds9pz9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=12%2C12%2C4013%2C2933&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Graeme McCrabb/AAP</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>As this summer draws to a close, it marks just over a year since <a href="http://theconversation.com/we-wrote-the-report-for-the-minister-on-fish-deaths-in-the-lower-darling-heres-why-it-could-happen-again-115063">successive fish death events</a> at Menindee in Lower Darling River made global headlines.</p>
<p>Two independent <a href="https://www.atse.org.au/news-and-events/article/fish-kill-reports-confirm-value-of-science/">investigations</a> found high levels of blue-green algae and low oxygen levels in the water caused the deaths. Basically, the fish suffocated.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/we-wrote-the-report-for-the-minister-on-fish-deaths-in-the-lower-darling-heres-why-it-could-happen-again-115063">We wrote the report for the minister on fish deaths in the lower Darling – here's why it could happen again</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>The conditions were caused by a combination of water extraction and extremely dry conditions which effectively stopped the river from flowing. Both investigations concluded that until more water flowed in the Darling, in western New South Wales, <a href="https://theconversation.com/fish-kills-and-undrinkable-water-heres-what-to-expect-for-the-murray-darling-this-summer-126940">further fish kills were very likely</a>. </p>
<p>So what’s happened since, and does the recent rain mean the crisis won’t be repeated?</p>
<h2>Federal and state government action</h2>
<p>In April last year the <a href="https://nationals.org.au/federal-government-responds-to-independent-report-into-fish-deaths/">federal government committed A$70 million</a> to improve the river’s health and prevent more fish deaths. Let’s examine what’s been done so far:</p>
<p><strong>- Native fish management and recovery strategy:</strong> Parts of a draft native fish management and recovery strategy have been released for <a href="https://getinvolved.mdba.gov.au/native-fish-strategy">public consultation</a>. The plan has included governments, academics, the community and indigenous groups.</p>
<p><strong>- Native fish hatchery:</strong> Government <a href="https://www.farmonline.com.au/story/6436859/more-murray-darling-fish-deaths-coming-in-summer-water-minister/">hatchery facilities at Narrandera in NSW will be upgraded</a> to hold and breed more fish. But reintroducing fish into affected areas is challenging and could be a decades-long program.</p>
<p><strong>- Research:</strong> The government committed to <a href="https://www.farmonline.com.au/story/6360398/fish-kill-follow-up-study-gets-20m-from-water-minister/">new research into hydrology and climate change</a>. A panel has been <a href="https://www.tonypasin.com/20m-basin-research-program-increases-security/">formed</a> and the oversight committee is scoping the most effective research outcomes to better manage water under a changed climate.</p>
<p><strong>- Fish passage infrastructure:</strong> Fish ladders – structures that allow fish to travel around obstacles on a river – are needed at sites on the lower and upper Darling. Fish ladder concept designs have progressed and are also part of the <a href="https://www.waternsw.com.au/projects/new-dams-for-nsw/western-weirs-program">NSW government’s Western Weirs project</a>. </p>
<p><strong>-In-stream cameras:</strong> Live-stream feeds of the Darling River are not yet available. </p>
<p><strong>-Meter upgrades and water buybacks:</strong> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2019/aug/21/big-irrigators-take-86-of-water-from-barwon-darling-report-finds">Discussions have begun as part of a commitment to buy back A-class water licenses from farmers</a> and return water to the rivers. Rollout of improved metering is due <a href="https://www.industry.nsw.gov.au/water/environmental-water-hub/working-on/compliance">over the next five years</a>.</p>
<p>Progress on these actions is welcome. But the investigation panels also recommended other actions to help fish populations recover over the long term, including ensuring fish habitat and good water quality.</p>
<h2>Further fish deaths</h2>
<p>In 2003, basin native fish communities were estimated to be at <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/emr.12090">10% of pre-European levels</a> and the spates of fish deaths will have reduced this further. </p>
<p>Over spring and summer in 2019, conditions in the Darling River deteriorated. A series of smaller, but significant, fish deaths prompted <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/radio/programs/worldtoday/mass-fish-rescue-gets-underway-in-darling-river/11492042">government agencies and communities to conduct emergency “fish translocations”.</a>. Aerators were deployed in a bid to improve the de-oxygenation. Fish were moved to more suitable water bodies, or to hatcheries to create insurance populations. </p>
<p>By spring, once-mighty rivers such as the Darling and <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-09-08/macquarie-marshes-dry-up-as-water-supply-dwindles/11477928">Macquarie</a> had dried to shallow pools. As summer progressed, more than 30 fish die-offs occurred in the <a href="https://www.dpi.nsw.gov.au/fishing/habitat/threats/fish-kills">Macquarie, Namoi, Severn, Mehi and Cudgegong rivers and Tenterfield Creek</a>.</p>
<h2>What about the rain?</h2>
<p>Strong recent rainfall means upper parts of the Darling catchment are now flowing for the <a href="https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/longdry-rivers-runagain-after-reviving-inflows/news-story/48f4c516ba070026b2e5644ac1b3e708">first time in more than two years</a>. Flows are passing over the <a href="https://www.sbs.com.au/nitv/article/2020/02/17/weir-flows-rain-water-reaches-brewarrina1">Brewarrina Weir and associated fishway</a>.</p>
<p>A flowing Darling is great, but it raises questions over future water management. Farmers have been waiting for years for the Darling to flow and will be eager to extract water for agricultural productivity. Likewise, the environment has been awaiting a “flush” to reset the system and restore ecological productivity. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/aboriginal-voices-are-missing-from-the-murray-darling-basin-crisis-110769">Aboriginal voices are missing from the Murray-Darling Basin crisis</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>After the rains, the NSW government <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/rural/2020-02-12/lower-darling-flood-plain-embargo-lifted/11956862">allowed irrigators</a> to harvest floodwaters to reduce the threat of damage to private infrastructure. Now that threat has subsided, governments are working together to “actively manage” the event – meaning water rules will be decided as the flow progresses, in consultation with water users and environmental managers. </p>
<p>But there is still <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-12-17/water-ministers-meet-to-debate-murray-darling-basin-plan/11802998">significant debate on how best to manage water over the longer term.</a> </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/317500/original/file-20200227-24664-hwi9gx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/317500/original/file-20200227-24664-hwi9gx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/317500/original/file-20200227-24664-hwi9gx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/317500/original/file-20200227-24664-hwi9gx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/317500/original/file-20200227-24664-hwi9gx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/317500/original/file-20200227-24664-hwi9gx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/317500/original/file-20200227-24664-hwi9gx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Water use on the Darling River remains highly contested.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Dean Lewins/AAP</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Is a flowing Darling a return to normal?</h2>
<p>The current flows in the Darling are far from a return to normal conditions. NSW is still in drought, and the river flows are yet to reach the Lower Darling. Many <a href="https://www.mamamia.com.au/darling-river-fish-kill/">children in the Menindee township</a> have not seen a flowing Darling in their lifetime.</p>
<p>Indigenous elders and recreational fishers – those who remember <a href="https://www.sbs.com.au/news/indigenous-community-say-they-ve-lost-their-culture-to-water-mismanagement">when the river flowed freely and was full of fish</a> – are lamenting the recent declines. In parts of the system, dry riverbeds and isolated pools are still begging to be connected so fish can move about, spawn, and naturally recover.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/friday-essay-death-on-the-darling-colonialisms-final-encounter-with-the-barkandji-114275">Friday essay: death on the Darling, colonialism’s final encounter with the Barkandji</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>River flows could take up to six weeks to reach the lower Darling, and follow-up rain is urgently needed to avoid another summer of fish carnage. Future water sharing strategies must protect both upstream and downstream communities. Some people are lobbying for the Menindee lakes to be <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-01-30/ramsar-listing-bid-for-menindee-lakes-back-on-agenda/6056728">listed as internationally important under the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands</a> to ensure biodiversity and water management work together.</p>
<p>Undoing over 200 years of fish declines will require a sustained effort, with a significant investment in recovery actions over a long period. We must recognise Australia is a country of long droughts and flooding rains, and develop a proactive native fish strategy that reduces the probability of a similar disaster in future. </p>
<p>But unfortunately, as history has shown that when we transition from drought to flood, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/oct/15/the-only-thing-as-certain-as-drought-in-australia-is-the-stupid-calls-to-build-new-dams">our memories can be short</a>.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/132346/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Lee Baumgartner was part of the independent panel that investigated the Menindee fish deaths in 2019. He receives funding from the Australian government to help mitigate the impacts of irrigation development on fisheries in South East Asia but remains a strong advocate for sustainable practices in the Murray-Darling Basin.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Max Finlayson is President of the Society of Wetland Scientists for 2019-20 and is actively involved with various academic and community-based or non-governmental organisations associated with river and wetland management in Australia and many other countries. He has published on management and policy issues for large rivers and wetlands and is an advocate for effective community participation in decision-making to ensure we maintain or restore the many benefits these ecosystem provide to local communities and those further afield. . </span></em></p>Recent rains have not eliminated the threat of a repeat of last summer’s mass fish deaths.Lee Baumgartner, Professor of Fisheries and River Management, Institute for Land, Water, and Society, Charles Sturt UniversityMax Finlayson, Adjunct Professor, Charles Sturt UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1299872020-01-29T01:36:48Z2020-01-29T01:36:48ZHumans are good at thinking their way out of problems – but climate change is outfoxing us<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/311746/original/file-20200124-81341-1gvclnq.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=25%2C33%2C4609%2C3667&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">In some areas of human activity such as farming, we are exhausting our capacity to adapt to climate change.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Daniel Mariuz/AAP</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>There is <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-019-03595-0">growing evidence</a> that Earth’s systems are heading towards climate “tipping points” beyond which change becomes abrupt and unstoppable. But another tipping point is already being crossed - humanity’s capacity to adapt to a warmer world.</p>
<p>This season’s uncontrollable bushfires overwhelmed the nation. They left <a href="https://www.afr.com/politics/federal/six-firefighters-injured-three-dead-within-10-hours-20200124-p53uc4">33 people</a> dead, killed an estimated <a href="https://sydney.edu.au/news-opinion/news/2020/01/08/australian-bushfires-more-than-one-billion-animals-impacted.html">one billion animals</a> and razed more than 10 million hectares – a land area <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-50951043">almost the size of England</a>. The millions of tonnes of carbon dioxide the fires spewed into the atmosphere will accelerate climate change further. </p>
<p>Humans are a <a href="https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/humans-may-be-most-adaptive-species/">highly adaptive species</a>. In the initial phases of global warming in the 20th century, we coped with the changes. But at some point, the pace and extent of global warming will outrun the human capacity to adapt. Already in Australia, there are signs we have reached that point.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/311758/original/file-20200124-81346-17n9wq7.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/311758/original/file-20200124-81346-17n9wq7.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/311758/original/file-20200124-81346-17n9wq7.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/311758/original/file-20200124-81346-17n9wq7.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/311758/original/file-20200124-81346-17n9wq7.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/311758/original/file-20200124-81346-17n9wq7.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/311758/original/file-20200124-81346-17n9wq7.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Climate change and its effects, such as drought, challenge the human capacity to adapt.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Dean Lewins/AAP</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Wine woes</h2>
<p>For Australia, the first obvious tipping point may come in agriculture. Farmers have gradually adapted to a changing climate for the last two decades, but this can’t go on indefinitely.</p>
<p>Take wine grapes. In the space of just 20 years, a warming climate means grape harvest dates have come back by <a href="https://www.theland.com.au/story/6559752/the-wine-industry-is-the-canary-in-the-coal-mine/">roughly 40 days</a>. That is, instead of harvesting red grapes at the end of March or early April many growers are now harvesting in mid-February. This is astounding. </p>
<p>The implications for wine quality are profound. Rapid ripening can cause “unbalanced fruit” where high sugar levels are reached before optimum colour and flavour development has been achieved.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/in-this-new-world-of-bushfire-terror-i-question-whether-i-want-to-have-kids-126752">In this new world of bushfire terror, I question whether I want to have kids</a>
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</p>
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<p>To date, wine producers have <a href="https://www.theland.com.au/story/6559752/the-wine-industry-is-the-canary-in-the-coal-mine/">dealt with the problem</a> by switching to more heat-tolerant grape varieties, using sprinklers on hot days and even adding water <strong>to wine?</strong> to reduce excessive alcohol content. But these adaptations can only go so far.</p>
<p>On top of this, the recent fires ravaged wine regions in south-eastern Australia. Smoke <a href="https://www.afr.com/life-and-luxury/food-and-wine/the-hidden-cost-of-bushfires-smoke-taint-in-vineyards-20200120-p53szt">reportedly ruined many grape crops</a> and one wine companies, Tyrrell’s Wines, expects to produce <a href="https://www.afr.com/companies/agriculture/tyrrell-s-loses-80pc-of-grapes-due-to-fires-20200122-p53tr1">just 20% of its usual volume</a> this year.</p>
<p>At some point, climate change may render grape production uneconomic in large areas of Australia.</p>
<h2>The Murray Darling crisis</h2>
<p>Farmers are used to handling drought. But the sequence of droughts since 2000 – <a href="https://theconversation.com/is-australias-current-drought-caused-by-climate-change-its-complicated-97867">exacerbated by climate change</a> – raises the prospect that investment in cropland and cropping machinery becomes uneconomic. This in turn will negatively impact suppliers and local communities.</p>
<p>The problems are most severe in relation to irrigated agriculture, particularly in the Murray–Darling Basin.</p>
<p>In the early 1990s, it became clear that historical over-extraction of water had damaged the ecosystem’s health. In subsequent decades, policies to address this – such as extraction caps – were introduced. They assumed rainfall patterns of the 20th century would continue unchanged.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/australias-bushfire-smoke-is-lapping-the-globe-and-the-law-is-too-lame-to-catch-it-130010">Australia's bushfire smoke is lapping the globe, and the law is too lame to catch it</a>
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<p>However the 21st century has been characterised by <a href="https://watersource.awa.asn.au/environment/natural-environment/murray-darling-basin-drought-most-severe-on-record/">long periods of severe drought</a>, and policies to revive the river environment have largely failed. Nowhere was this more evident than during last summer’s <a href="https://theconversation.com/we-wrote-the-report-for-the-minister-on-fish-deaths-in-the-lower-darling-heres-why-it-could-happen-again-115063">shocking fish kills</a>.</p>
<p>The current drought has pushed the situation to political boiling point - and perhaps ecological tipping point.</p>
<p><a href="https://theconversation.com/the-water-crisis-has-plunged-the-nats-into-a-world-of-pain-but-they-reap-what-they-sow-128238">Tensions</a> between the Commonwealth and the states have prompted New South Wales government, which largely <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2018/feb/08/nsw-minister-altered-barwon-darling-water-sharing-plan-to-favour-irrigators">acts in irrigator interests</a>, to flag <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2018/feb/13/states-threaten-to-quit-murray-darling-basin-plan-over-water-recovery-target">quitting</a> the Murray Darling Basin Plan. This may mean even more water is taken from the river system, precipitating an ecological catastrophe.</p>
<p>The Murray Darling case shows adaptation tipping points are not, in general, triggered solely by climate change. The interaction between climate change and social, political and economic systems determines whether human systems adapt or break down.</p>
<h2>Power struggles</h2>
<p>The importance of this interplay is illustrated even more sharply by Australia’s failed electricity policy.</p>
<p>Political and public resistance to climate mitigation is largely driven by professed concern about the price and reliability of electricity – that a transition to renewable energy will cause supply shortages and higher energy bills.</p>
<p>However a failure to act on climate change has itself put huge stress on the electricity system.</p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/some-say-weve-seen-bushfires-worse-than-this-before-but-theyre-ignoring-a-few-key-facts-129391">Some say we've seen bushfires worse than this before. But they're ignoring a few key facts</a>
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<p>Hot summers have caused old coal-fired power stations to <a href="https://www.tai.org.au/content/september-gas-coal-power-plants-have-broken-down-100-times-so-far-2018">break down more frequently</a>. And the increased use of air-conditioning has increased electricity demand – particularly at peak times, which our system is ill-equipped to handle. </p>
<p>Finally, the recent bushfire disaster <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/business/the-economy/energy-grid-under-threat-as-bushfires-bear-down-on-power-lines-20200103-p53om1.html">destroyed</a> substantial parts of the electricity transmission and distribution system, implying yet further costs. Insurance costs for electricity networks are tipped to rise in response to the bushfire risk, <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-01-23/power-prices-rise-blackouts-increase-bushfire-season-intensifies/11890646">pushing power prices even higher</a>.</p>
<p>So far, the federal government’s response to the threat has been that of a failed state. A <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-10-16/cabinet-dumps-clean-energy-target-for-new-plan/9056174">series</a> of <a href="https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=3&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=2ahUKEwjmuvPLvZvnAhWmxjgGHe_ZB0cQFjACegQIPBAB&url=http%3A%2F%2Fclimatechangeauthority.gov.au%2Fsites%2Fprod.climatechangeauthority.gov.au%2Ffiles%2Ffiles%2FSpecial%2520review%2520Report%25203%2FClimate%2520Change%2520Authority%2520Special%2520Review%2520Report%2520Three.pdf&usg=AOvVaw3Po_SKPoPYvtjR0eKx9PA5">plans</a> to reform the system and adapt to climate change, most recently the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2018/sep/08/scott-morrison-says-national-energy-guarantee-is-dead">National Energy Guarantee</a>, have floundered thanks to climate deniers in the federal government. Even as the recent fire disaster unfolded, our prime minister <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/fire-what-fire-it-s-business-as-usual-in-morrison-s-canberra-bubble-20191206-p53hom.html">remained paralysed</a>. </p>
<h2>The big picture</h2>
<p>Australia is not alone in facing these adaptation problems – or indeed in generating emissions that drive planetary warming. Only global action can address the problem.</p>
<p>But when the carbon impact of Australia’s fires is seen in tandem with recent climate policy failures here and elsewhere, the future looks very grim.</p>
<p>We need radical and immediate mitigation strategies, as well as adaptation measures based on science. Without this, 2019 may indeed be seen as a tipping point on the road to both climate catastrophe, and humanity’s capacity to cope.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/scientists-hate-to-say-i-told-you-so-but-australia-you-were-warned-130211">Scientists hate to say 'I told you so'. But Australia, you were warned</a>
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<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/129987/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>John Quiggin is a former Member of the Climate Change Authority and an active campaigner for action to mitigate global heating.</span></em></p>Australian winemakers have lost smoke-tainted crops and political leaders apparently cannot solve the Murray Darling crisis. Perhaps climate change is getting the better of us.John Quiggin, Professor, School of Economics, The University of QueenslandLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1282382019-12-09T23:49:29Z2019-12-09T23:49:29ZThe water crisis has plunged the Nats into a world of pain. But they reap what they sow<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/305791/original/file-20191209-90552-1br4y3x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C8%2C5568%2C3692&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Angry farmers are pressuring the Nationals to tear up the Murray Darling Basin Plan.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Lukas Coch/AAP</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>When farmers <a href="https://thenewdaily.com.au/news/politics/australian-politics/2019/12/03/farmers-drought-protest-canberra/">descended on Parliament House in Canberra</a> this month to demand the Murray Darling Basin Plan be dumped, they reserved sharp words for Nationals leader Michael McCormack.</p>
<p>“The National Party is not going to exist after the next election unless you grow some spine,” one angry irrigator warned him.</p>
<p>“Get up there and say ‘this is not f—ing good enough’. Get angry!”</p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/fish-kills-and-undrinkable-water-heres-what-to-expect-for-the-murray-darling-this-summer-126940">Fish kills and undrinkable water: here's what to expect for the Murray Darling this summer</a>
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</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>By the end of the week, federal Minister for Water Resources David Littleproud, a Nationals MP, had <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/rural/2019-12-03/protesting-irrigators-say-water-sharing-to-be-reviewed/11759388">announced a review</a> of water sharing arrangements under the basin plan, claiming it would “<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2019/dec/03/nsw-nationals-demand-changes-to-murray-darling-plan-or-state-will-pull-out">take the politics out</a>” of the issue.</p>
<p>But that hope will be in vain. If irrigators in New South Wales get more water, that means less for the environment and other water users downstream including irrigators in South Australia.</p>
<p>The Nationals are wedged between NSW irrigation communities and its coalition with the Liberals. But this crisis is largely of the party’s own making, and it will not go away any time soon.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/305789/original/file-20191209-90597-1gxylal.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/305789/original/file-20191209-90597-1gxylal.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/305789/original/file-20191209-90597-1gxylal.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/305789/original/file-20191209-90597-1gxylal.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/305789/original/file-20191209-90597-1gxylal.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/305789/original/file-20191209-90597-1gxylal.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/305789/original/file-20191209-90597-1gxylal.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Farmers say water shortages are threatening their livelihoods and communities.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">AAP</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>A political bind</h2>
<p>The <a href="https://www.mdba.gov.au/sites/default/files/pubs/What-is-the-Murray-Darling-Basin-Plan_0.pdf">Murray Darling Basin Plan</a> became law in 2012. It’s meant to determine how much water can be drawn from the river system by users, mostly irrigators who <a href="https://www.mdba.gov.au/sites/default/files/pubs/MDBA-Annual-Report-2017-18.pdf">use about 95%</a> of extracted water. The plan aims to return some water to rivers, wetlands and flood plains by buying it from willing sellers on the water market, and improving infrastructure to prevent water loss.</p>
<p>The National Party has long blamed the basin plan for a raft of problems facing rural communities. This attitude might have served the Nationals’ short-term political interests. But it created a monster: stoking dissatisfaction from rural voters it is now unable to manage. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-murray-darling-basin-scandal-economists-have-seen-it-coming-for-decades-119989">The Murray-Darling Basin scandal: economists have seen it coming for decades</a>
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</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>The beneficiaries are right-wing minor parties such as One Nation, to which rural voters in NSW and southern Queensland <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2019/mar/25/nsw-election-bush-politics-have-changed-but-the-nationals-have-not">are now turning</a>. </p>
<p>The Nationals’ base might be rural, but it is in coalition with the Liberals who must appease both capital city voters concerned about the environment, and constituents in downstream South Australia where voters of all persuasions think their state does not receive a fair share of water.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/305788/original/file-20191209-90609-ulv0y0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=16%2C308%2C5542%2C3392&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/305788/original/file-20191209-90609-ulv0y0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/305788/original/file-20191209-90609-ulv0y0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/305788/original/file-20191209-90609-ulv0y0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/305788/original/file-20191209-90609-ulv0y0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/305788/original/file-20191209-90609-ulv0y0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/305788/original/file-20191209-90609-ulv0y0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Nationals are wedged between their rural base and Liberal voters.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Mick Tsikas/AAP</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>A history of white-anting</h2>
<p>It is ironic farmers now accuse the Nationals of not doing enough to oppose the basin plan, given the party’s record on water policy at a state and federal level.</p>
<p>As far back as the 1980s, it became clear water salinity and over-extraction by irrigators was degrading river environments in the Murray Darling Basin. </p>
<p>Over ensuing decades the Nationals could have helped affected communities accept the need to take a basin-wide approach to water extraction. Instead they fuelled resentment by demanding more water for irrigators, implicitly dismissing the legitimate needs of the environment and downstream water users.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/paddling-blind-why-we-urgently-need-a-water-audit-122118">Paddling blind: why we urgently need a water audit</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>In the early 1990s, for example, when a cap on further extractions was being planned, the NSW government (whose water policy was controlled by the Nationals) insisted water licenses not yet activated should be accepted within the cap. This substantially increased the volume of water extracted.</p>
<p>But even after securing the the changes, the Nationals <a href="http://press-files.anu.edu.au/downloads/press/p115431/html/ch20.xhtml?referer=109&page=29">campaigned against the policy</a>. </p>
<p>Later as part of the Howard government, the Nationals reluctantly helped prepare the Water Act 2007 which underpins the basin plan. When it finally went before Parliament in 2012, McCormack, then a backbencher, <a href="https://www.michaelmccormack.com.au/speeches/2012/11/29/motions-murray-darling-basin-plan-disallowance">opposed it</a>. Such opposition has been a hallmark of Nationals policy ever since. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/305790/original/file-20191209-90592-ztvwrj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/305790/original/file-20191209-90592-ztvwrj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/305790/original/file-20191209-90592-ztvwrj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/305790/original/file-20191209-90592-ztvwrj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/305790/original/file-20191209-90592-ztvwrj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/305790/original/file-20191209-90592-ztvwrj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/305790/original/file-20191209-90592-ztvwrj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Receding waters in the NSW Menindee Lakes which is under pressure from low water flows.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Dean Lewins/AAP</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In NSW, Nationals water ministers have undermined the plan in many ways, including by <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2019/jan/16/damning-murray-darling-report-says-nsw-well-behind-on-water-sharing-plans">failing to ensure the timely delivery</a> of <a href="https://www.mdba.gov.au/basin-plan-roll-out/water-resource-plans">“water resource plans”</a>. These plans are supposed to outline how water will be shared between irrigators and the environment at a regional level, and are essential to the success of the broader basin policy. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/its-time-to-restore-public-trust-in-the-governing-of-the-murray-darling-basin-109797">It's time to restore public trust in the governing of the Murray Darling Basin</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Meanwhile federally, Nationals MPs have insisted water for the environment be acquired by improving water infrastructure rather than taking water from irrigators. The building of this infrastructure has led to additional costs for taxpayers for little environmental benefit.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/305792/original/file-20191209-90609-1hlpvb4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/305792/original/file-20191209-90609-1hlpvb4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/305792/original/file-20191209-90609-1hlpvb4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/305792/original/file-20191209-90609-1hlpvb4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/305792/original/file-20191209-90609-1hlpvb4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/305792/original/file-20191209-90609-1hlpvb4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/305792/original/file-20191209-90609-1hlpvb4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Farmers at a rally outside Parliament House. They want the basin plan scrapped.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Lukas Coch/AAP</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>So what next?</h2>
<p>The basin plan now appears on the brink of collapse. The NSW government <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2019/dec/03/nsw-nationals-demand-changes-to-murray-darling-plan-or-state-will-pull-out">is threatening to pull out</a> if changes are not made and Littleproud’s decision to review water-sharing arrangements is hardly a ringing endorsement of the plan.</p>
<p>Meanwhile the Greens and other critics say the plan was never adequate anyway,
given the low volumes of water redirected to the environment and its failure to properly recognise climate change. </p>
<p>If irrigators succeed in having the plan scrapped, their victory is likely to be short-lived. Public anger at ongoing environmental degradation will only grow. And depending on the party in government when a new Murray Darling policy is drafted, irrigators may be treated with far less sympathy.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/128238/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Daniel Connell receives funding from National Water Commission 2007 for a project comparing MDB, Spain and Colorado. </span></em></p>The Nationals have stoked opposition to the Murray Darling Basin Plan at every opportunity. Now they cannot contain the fury of rural voters.Daniel Connell, Research Fellow, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1269402019-11-27T03:00:02Z2019-11-27T03:00:02ZFish kills and undrinkable water: here’s what to expect for the Murray Darling this summer<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/303898/original/file-20191127-112484-1fpl15c.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=17%2C0%2C3821%2C2561&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Dry conditions will make for a difficult summer in the Murray Darling Basin.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">AAP/Dean Lewins</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>A grim summer is likely for the rivers of the Murray-Darling Basin and the people, flora and fauna that rely on it. Having worked for sustainable management of these rivers for decades, I fear the coming months will be among the worst in history for Australia’s most important river system.</p>
<p>The 34 months from January 2017 to October 2019 were the <a href="http://www.bom.gov.au/climate/drought/">driest on record</a> in the basin. Low water inflows have led to dam levels lower than those seen in the devastating Millennium drought.</p>
<p>No relief is in sight. The Bureau of Meteorology <a href="http://www.bom.gov.au/climate/outlooks/#/overview/summary">is forecasting</a> drier-than-average conditions for the second half of November and December. Across the summer, rainfall is also projected to be below average.</p>
<p>So let’s take a look at what this summer will likely bring for the Murray Darling Basin - on which our economy, food security and well-being depend.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/303895/original/file-20191127-112512-oqdek7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/303895/original/file-20191127-112512-oqdek7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/303895/original/file-20191127-112512-oqdek7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/303895/original/file-20191127-112512-oqdek7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/303895/original/file-20191127-112512-oqdek7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/303895/original/file-20191127-112512-oqdek7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/303895/original/file-20191127-112512-oqdek7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A farmer stands in the dry river bed of the Darling River in February this year.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Dean Lewins/AAP</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Not a pretty picture</h2>
<p>As the river system continues to dry up and tributaries stop flowing, the damaging effect on people and the environment will accelerate. <a href="https://theconversation.com/we-wrote-the-report-for-the-minister-on-fish-deaths-in-the-lower-darling-heres-why-it-could-happen-again-115063">Mass fish kills</a> of the kind we saw last summer are again likely as water in rivers, waterholes and lakes declines in quality and evaporates. </p>
<p>Three million Australians depend on the basin’s rivers for their water and livelihoods. Adelaide can use its desalination plants and Canberra has enough stored water for now. But other towns and cities in the basin risk running out of water. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/paddling-blind-why-we-urgently-need-a-water-audit-122118">Paddling blind: why we urgently need a water audit</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Governments were warned well before the drought <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/environment/sustainability/asleep-at-the-wheel-nsw-government-ignored-years-of-water-warnings-20191020-p532e4.html">to better secure water supplies through infrastructure and other measures</a>. But the response was inadequate.</p>
<p>Some towns such as <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/plan-c-is-a-problem-a-town-without-ground-water-nears-day-zero-20191022-p53334.html">Armidale</a> in New South Wales have been preparing to truck water to homes, at great expense. Water costs will likely increase to pay for infrastructure such as pumps and pipelines. The shortages will particularly affect Indigenous communities, pastoralists who need water for domestic use and livestock, irrigation farmers and tourism business on the rivers.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/303887/original/file-20191127-112531-1oo08lm.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/303887/original/file-20191127-112531-1oo08lm.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=615&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/303887/original/file-20191127-112531-1oo08lm.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=615&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/303887/original/file-20191127-112531-1oo08lm.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=615&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/303887/original/file-20191127-112531-1oo08lm.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=773&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/303887/original/file-20191127-112531-1oo08lm.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=773&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/303887/original/file-20191127-112531-1oo08lm.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=773&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Water in major storages as reported at 13 November 2019.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.mdba.gov.au/managing-water/drought-murray-darling-basin/murray-darling-basin-drought-update]">Murray Darling Basin Authority</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>As we saw during the Millennium drought, when wetland soils dry <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0169772214000473">some sediments will oxidise to form sulfuric acid</a>. This kills fauna and flora and can make water undrinkable.</p>
<p>Red gum floodplain forests and other wetland flora will continue to die. Most of these wetlands <a href="https://wentworthgroup.org/2019/02/mdb-flows/2019/">have not had a drink since 2011</a>. The desiccation, due to <a href="https://www.mdbrc.sa.gov.au/">mismanagement</a> and drought, is likely to see the return of <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11269-012-0113-2">hypersalinity</a> – a huge excess of salt in the water - with river flows too weak to flush the salt out to sea.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/murray-darling-report-shows-public-authorities-must-take-climate-change-risk-seriously-110990">Murray-Darling report shows public authorities must take climate change risk seriously</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>If drought-breaking rains do come, as they did in 2010-11, this would create a new threat. Floodwaters would inundate leaf litter on the floodplains, triggering a bacterial feast that depletes the water of oxygen. These so-called <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0022169412003691">“blackwater” events</a> kill fish, crayfish and other aquatic animals.</p>
<p>The risk of blackwater events has largely arisen because government authorities have failed to manage water as they had agreed. In particular, the NSW and Victorian governments have not worked with farmers to allow managed river flows to inundate floodplains.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/303896/original/file-20191127-112517-1r4f1cp.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=18%2C0%2C4007%2C3024&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/303896/original/file-20191127-112517-1r4f1cp.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/303896/original/file-20191127-112517-1r4f1cp.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/303896/original/file-20191127-112517-1r4f1cp.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/303896/original/file-20191127-112517-1r4f1cp.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/303896/original/file-20191127-112517-1r4f1cp.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/303896/original/file-20191127-112517-1r4f1cp.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The prospect of thousands of dead fish in the Murray Darling Basin looms large again this summer.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">AAP/GRAEME MCCRABB</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>How did we get here?</h2>
<p>The severity and impacts of this drought should not come as a surprise. In the 1980s, the CSIRO’s <a href="https://publications.csiro.au/rpr/pub?list=BRO&pid=procite:ad3bb615-94cf-4894-ae2a-02673be5cc99">first projections of climate change impacts in the basin</a> foreshadowed what is unfolding now.</p>
<p>Despite the decades-old warnings, water management authorities in some catchments favoured water extraction by irrigators over rural communities, pastoralists and the environment. For example, the NSW Natural Resources Commission in September found that state government changes to water regulations <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/environment/sustainability/barwon-darling-river-faces-collapse-from-government-mistakes-report-20190724-p52a7i.html">brought forward</a> the drying up of the Darling River by three years.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/we-cant-drought-proof-australia-and-trying-is-a-fools-errand-124504">We can’t drought-proof Australia, and trying is a fool's errand</a>
</strong>
</em>
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<hr>
<p>Since the basin plan was adopted in 2012 our federal and state political leaders have reduced the volume of real water needed to keep the rivers healthy, supply water to people and flush salt out to sea. For example, in May 2018 the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2018/may/07/murray-darling-basin-plan-labor-to-decide-whether-it-will-back-key-changes">federal government and Labor opposition agreed</a> to reduce water allocated to the environment by 70 billion litres a year on average, without a <a href="https://theconversation.com/damning-royal-commission-report-leaves-no-doubt-that-we-all-lose-if-the-murray-darling-basin-plan-fails-110908">legitimate scientific basis</a>.</p>
<p>The basin plan is based on historical river flow records, without <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/wcc.230">explicitly allowing for diminished inflows resulting from climate change</a>. Australian water management has followed what’s been termed a “<a href="http://theconversation.com/to-help-drought-affected-farmers-we-need-to-support-them-in-good-times-as-well-as-bad-101184">hydro-illogical cycle</a>” where drought triggers reform, but government leaders lose attention once it rains. This suggests meaningful reform must be implemented when drought is occurring and politicians are under pressure to respond.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/303889/original/file-20191127-112531-132w7xq.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=27%2C0%2C4569%2C3060&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/303889/original/file-20191127-112531-132w7xq.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/303889/original/file-20191127-112531-132w7xq.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/303889/original/file-20191127-112531-132w7xq.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/303889/original/file-20191127-112531-132w7xq.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/303889/original/file-20191127-112531-132w7xq.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/303889/original/file-20191127-112531-132w7xq.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Severe drought and mismanagement means a dire summer for the Murray-Darling river system.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Dean Lewins/AAP</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>How to fix this</h2>
<p>Governments must assume that climate-induced drought conditions in the basin are the new normal, and plan for it.</p>
<p>Action should include:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>Revising water allocations consistent with climate change projections</p></li>
<li><p>Investing in managed aquifer recharge to supply more towns with reliable and safe water</p></li>
<li><p>Restoring rivers by reallocating enough water to sustain their health</p></li>
<li><p>Increasing wetland resilience by reconnecting rivers to their floodplains in wetter years </p></li>
<li><p>Improving river health, such as by fencing out livestock.</p></li>
</ul>
<p>Investing in these adaptation actions now would provide jobs during the drought and prepare Australia for a much drier future in the Murray-Darling Basin.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/126940/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jamie Pittock received funding from the National Climate Change Adaptation Research Facility for research on climate change adaptation in the lower River Murray. Jamie is a member of the Wentworth Group of Concerned Scientists and advisory committees for The Nature Conservancy and WWF in Australia.</span></em></p>A researcher who’s worked for decades to improve the health of the Murray Darling Basin fears the coming months will be among the worst in history.Jamie Pittock, Professor, Fenner School of Environment & Society, Australian National UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1244912019-10-02T20:04:01Z2019-10-02T20:04:01ZScarcity drives water prices, not government water recovery: new research<p>Australia has one of the most sophisticated water markets in the world, particularly notable for the ways in which government can return water to the environment. </p>
<p>Water markets allow the return of this water through two main mechanisms. The first is buybacks, in which the government purchases water licences directly from willing irrigators via an open tender process. </p>
<p>The second involves subsidising irrigation infrastructure on (and off) farms to improve water efficiency, with a percentage of the assumed water savings being transferred to a licence held by the government. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-darling-river-is-simply-not-supposed-to-dry-out-even-in-drought-109880">The Darling River is simply not supposed to dry out, even in drought</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>However, open tender buybacks essentially <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/feb/27/murray-darling-basin-deal-caps-water-buybacks">stopped in 2014</a> in favour of infrastructure projects. This was due to the widespread belief that buybacks were inflating the price of water and causing economic hardship in rural communities. </p>
<p>Our research, published in <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0928765518304585">Resource and Energy Economics</a>, set out to test this assumption of the impact of water recovery on water markets. We found that water scarcity (due to seasonal change or water allocation reductions) had far more influence on water prices than government water recovery. In fact, voluntary, open tender buybacks are the most cost-effective and low-risk option for increasing river flow. </p>
<p>By ignoring this option, we are hamstringing Australia’s ability to flexibly cope with drought conditions and long-term climate change.</p>
<h2>Lessons from 20 years of data</h2>
<p>My colleagues and I wanted to understand the impact of government water recovery on the Murray-Darling Basin’s water markets. To do so, we needed to understand the dynamics and drivers of the markets both before and after buybacks began.</p>
<p>We looked at monthly prices over twenty years in the Goulburn catchment in Victoria (<a href="https://www.mdba.gov.au/managing-water/water-markets-trade/interstate-water-trade">1A Greater Goulburn</a>) - both for permanent water markets (where a water licence is permanently transferred) and temporary ones (a seasonal transfer of water).</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/295324/original/file-20191002-49365-xmv3hp.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/295324/original/file-20191002-49365-xmv3hp.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/295324/original/file-20191002-49365-xmv3hp.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=540&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/295324/original/file-20191002-49365-xmv3hp.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=540&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/295324/original/file-20191002-49365-xmv3hp.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=540&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/295324/original/file-20191002-49365-xmv3hp.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=679&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/295324/original/file-20191002-49365-xmv3hp.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=679&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/295324/original/file-20191002-49365-xmv3hp.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=679&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The drivers of water market prices in temporary and permanent water markets are different, but market dynamics are similar: market volatility shocks go from prices to volumes.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/295325/original/file-20191002-49404-n8hk9p.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/295325/original/file-20191002-49404-n8hk9p.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/295325/original/file-20191002-49404-n8hk9p.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/295325/original/file-20191002-49404-n8hk9p.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/295325/original/file-20191002-49404-n8hk9p.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/295325/original/file-20191002-49404-n8hk9p.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/295325/original/file-20191002-49404-n8hk9p.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/295325/original/file-20191002-49404-n8hk9p.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Temporary water trade is driven by water scarcity, caused by factors such as seasonal fluctuation in water allocated to licences and the weather. Conversely, permanent water trade is influenced by a combination of past prices and temporary water prices.</p>
<h2>What about government intervention?</h2>
<p>We found no evidence that government water recovery influenced water prices in either market in a statistically significantly way.</p>
<p>However, we did find that increases in the amount of water recovered by the government reduced the volume of temporary water traded. This is probably due to the fact that many irrigators who sold water to the government had been <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/1759-3441.12038">selling surplus temporary water</a>, and this volume was then taken out of the market.</p>
<p>We also found that government water recovery increased the volatility of temporary market prices and volumes, signalling potential increased risk and uncertainty for irrigators engaging in temporary water markets.</p>
<p>These results are significantly different to previous estimates by consultants, some of which suggest government buybacks cause <a href="http://rmcg.com.au/app/uploads/2017/01/Basin-Plan-Impact-GMID_Final_14-October-2016.pdf">temporary water market prices to double</a>.</p>
<p>Our findings contradict this. Our results are in line with and reinforce other peer-reviewed economic literature, which has shown buyback of water entitlements had <a href="https://mdbrcsa.govcms.gov.au/sites/g/files/net3846/f/mdbrc-submission-professor-sarah-wheeler-sa.pdf?v=1527826747">far less impact on rural communities than commonly claimed</a>.</p>
<p>This is partly because government buybacks simply do not create large enough changes in the amount of seasonal water available to affect prices, given that variability. A 1% increase in water buybacks caused a 0.1% drop in temporary water volume traded. In addition, farmers are very good at adapting to changes in water, and have a number of strategies and options available to them in most years.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, commonly held perceptions about the impacts of buyback on rural communities and water markets has had serious policy ramifications.</p>
<h2>Irrigation schemes are not enough</h2>
<p>As noted earlier, buybacks are now off the table. Funding for water recovery is now directed exclusively to infrastructure projects, which are deficient in a number of key respects.</p>
<p>Since water buybacks started in 2008, A$2.5 billion has been spent to recover 1,227 gigalitres of water licences. At the same time, A$3.9 billion has been spent so far on things like lining channels and building dams, which has saved <a href="http://www.agriculture.gov.au/water/mdb/progress-recovery/progress-of-water-recovery">695 gigalitres</a>. </p>
<p>Water recovery by infrastructure schemes now cost at <a href="https://www.annualreviews.org/doi/full/10.1146/annurev-resource-100517-023039">least three times</a> as much as buybacks per megalitre recovered. These infrastructure projects <a href="https://theconversation.com/paddling-blind-why-we-urgently-need-a-water-audit-122118">may not</a> return as much water to the environment as assumed, while they also also create the risk of <a href="https://wentworthgroup.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/Requirements-for-SDL-adjustment.pdf">environmental harm</a>. </p>
<p>Irrigation infrastructure <a href="http://www.fao.org/3/I7090EN/i7090en.pdf">subsidies</a> can also expand total irrigation areas and increase water use, and encourage a conversion from seasonal crops to permanent plantings such as orchard trees. These permanent crops demand a fixed amount of water every year, making farms less adaptable in the face of drought and climate change. </p>
<h2>How did policy get this wrong?</h2>
<p>The results of our water market study show that there are key differences between high quality, peer-reviewed economic science on the one hand, and short-term consultancies and people’s perceptions on the other. </p>
<p>High quality economic science takes time, expertise and requires reputable, consistent and long-term datasets that control for the myriad of influences on economic change. Short-term consultancies and inquiries (such as the Northern Basin Review) are often rushed, not representative and are often not based on reliable datasets. </p>
<p>Inquiries also often amplify the voices of <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S026483771630401X">lobby groups and the people who are most aggrieved</a> by water recovery, while other voices – floodplain irrigators, indigenous representatives, irrigators who want water reallocated to the environment – may be <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/environment/conservation/the-thirsty-giants-killing-our-rivers-20190411-p51d4j.html">silenced</a>. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/aboriginal-voices-are-missing-from-the-murray-darling-basin-crisis-110769">Aboriginal voices are missing from the Murray-Darling Basin crisis</a>
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<p>There are currently two inquiries looking at <a href="https://www.accc.gov.au/focus-areas/inquiries/inquiry-into-murray-darling-basin-water-markets">water markets</a> and <a href="https://www.basin-socio-economic.com.au/">socio-economic conditions in the basin</a>. It is vitally important they capture all voices equally and are supplemented by independent, high quality analysis. </p>
<p>If we can’t understand the real drivers of change in the Basin, we can’t identify the best options for improving the social and economic health of its communities – particularly in the face of drought and climate change.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/124491/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sarah Ann Wheeler receives current funding from the Australian Research Council, the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research, Meat and Livestock Australia and Wine Australia.</span></em></p>Buybacks by open tenders were a successful, cost-effective way of returning water to the Murray-Darling Basin. They should never have been abandoned.Sarah Ann Wheeler, Professor in Water Economics, University of AdelaideLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1221182019-08-26T04:51:42Z2019-08-26T04:51:42ZPaddling blind: why we urgently need a water audit<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/289370/original/file-20190826-170941-18q8f4s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=31%2C52%2C1566%2C1144&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">There's broad support from communities and farmers for proper water audits. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/shebalso/625453843/in/photolist-XgBCX-jaFipg-bDgyWR-beU5MP-aXDQZc-TaRygB-7iSLUY-aXDVaK-mizx5F-ehyEtb-9243gz-gpeBLu-7sgZWW-2afn2De-HA1WQY-4f2Rwg-GnP3Z-akX1ma-98JmR5-akZNKY-gcHLj6-n1vRhX-ZaLRrm-7yXFdj-gcJEGT-dFyz9x-9f2Ldh-898fn-gcF2zW-A9Jtk-7Am1cD-7NhR4V-7Amoze-7RgFGD-p8x1fE-dw5Mn-a9B5BC-28AA2cn-7AmpnB-a1kNs6-aN4DkV-5UHhjj-AtHZqv-jsM59z-e4CASe-VJUoQn-5XKLGJ-AsBrq3-gcGVqX-AtKAsn">John/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>In the wake of a <a href="https://www.mdbrc.sa.gov.au/">damning royal commission</a> and an <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s83UuhDxT_Y">ABC Four Corners investigation</a>, the federal government has created an <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-08-01/inspector-general-to-oversee-murray-darling-basin-integrity/11371966">Inspector General for the Murray-Darling Basin</a>, to combat water theft, ensure water recovery and efficiency projects are delivered properly, and essentially make sure everyone is <a href="https://www.sbs.com.au/news/new-tough-cop-to-oversee-murray-darling-basin-plan">acting as they should</a>.</p>
<p>While this is a laudable aim, the Inspector General – currently former Australian Federal Police Commissioner Mike Keelty – cannot hope to do this job without knowing how much water is being used in the Basin, by whom it is used, and where. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/billions-spent-on-murray-darling-water-infrastructure-heres-the-result-119985">Billions spent on Murray-Darling water infrastructure: here's the result</a>
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<p>This might seem like basic information, but the <a href="http://www.bom.gov.au/water/nwa/2018/mdb/index.shtml">Bureau of Meteorology</a>, the <a href="https://www.mdba.gov.au/sites/default/files/pubs/SDL-Reporting-Compliance-Framework-Summary-Nov-18.PDF">Murray-Darling Basin Authority</a> and <a href="https://www.industry.nsw.gov.au/water/allocations-availability/water-accounting/gpw">state water accounts</a> are not up to the task.</p>
<p>We urgently need a comprehensive audit to track the water in the Murray Darling Basin, so Inspector General Keelty can effectively investigate what he has already described as a “<a href="https://www.thesaturdaypaper.com.au/news/politics/2019/04/27/keelty-warns-river-ripe-corruption/15562872008055">river ripe for corruption</a>”. </p>
<h2>Up the creek</h2>
<p>Back in 2004 all governments in Australia agreed to <a href="https://www.pc.gov.au/inquiries/completed/water-reform/national-water-initiative-agreement-2004.pdf">track and provide</a> information on water in terms of planning, monitoring, trading, environmental management, and on-farm management.</p>
<p>But water accounts still lack <a href="http://www.myoung.net.au/water/droplets.php">many essential features</a> including double-entry accounting. When applied to water, double-entry accounts means that when one person consumes more water, someone else must consume less. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/aboriginal-voices-are-missing-from-the-murray-darling-basin-crisis-110769">Aboriginal voices are missing from the Murray-Darling Basin crisis</a>
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<p>The technology to track this already exists: satellites that can quantify surface water are successfully being used <a href="https://idwr.idaho.gov/GIS/mapping-evapotranspiration/">used in the United States</a>. </p>
<p>If we had <a href="http://farminstitute.org.au/publications-1/farm-policy-journals/2019-winter-a-thirst-for-certainty-irrigation-in-the-murray-darling-basin/fpj1602c-grafton-rq-williams-j-2019-thirst-for-certainty-the-urgent-need-for-a-water-audit-of-the-mu">monthly water consumption measurements</a>, we could see how much water is being used, by whom, when and where. This would help decision makers see problems before they emerge, such as the <a href="https://www.science.org.au/files/userfiles/support/reports-and-plans/2019/academy-science-report-mass-fish-kills-digital.pdf">mass fish deaths in the Darling River</a>, and respond in real time. </p>
<p>As a recent report from the <a href="https://www.edonsw.org.au/water_sharing_plan_barwon_darling_alluvial">Natural Resources Commission</a> shows, without proper accounting, too much water is taken upstream – seriously harming downstream communities.</p>
<h2>Wide support for an audit</h2>
<p>An independent Basin-wide water audit is supported by communities and some <a href="https://www.thesaturdaypaper.com.au/news/politics/2019/07/13/murray-darling-recovery-peril/15629400008434">irrigators</a>. </p>
<p>In July <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/rural/2019-07-26/nsw-farmers-call-for-murray-darling-royal-commission/11347834">NSW farmers</a> voted in support of a federal royal commission into “the failings of the Murray Darling Basin Plan”. In our view, this vote shows many farmers support much greater transparency about how much water is being consumed, and by whom.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-darling-river-is-simply-not-supposed-to-dry-out-even-in-drought-109880">The Darling River is simply not supposed to dry out, even in drought</a>
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<p>Double-entry water consumption accounts would help identify whether the billions of dollars planned in subsidies to increase irrigation efficiency will actually deliver value for money. But irrigation improvements only generate public benefits when more water is left or returns to flow in streams and rivers. Such flows are essential to healthy rivers and sustainable Basin communities.</p>
<p>Irrigators’ crops benefit from increased efficiency, so subsidies <a href="https://www.pc.gov.au/inquiries/completed/basin-plan/report">help farmers greatly</a> – but it is very unclear whether they do anything for the public good. In fact, they seem to reduce the amount of water that finds its way back into the rivers. Research also shows infrastructure subsidies to improve irrigation efficiency <a href="https://science.sciencemag.org/content/361/6404/748">typically increases water consumption</a> at the Basin level. </p>
<p>Our research, <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13241583.2019.1579965">published earlier this year in the Australasian Journal of Water Resources</a> shows federal irrigation infrastructure subsidies may have reduced net stream and river levels. This is even after accounting for the water entitlements irrigators provided to the government in exchange for these subsidies.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/5-ways-the-government-can-clean-up-the-murray-darling-basin-plan-116265">5 ways the government can clean up the Murray-Darling Basin Plan</a>
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<h2>Independent audits</h2>
<p>Just like financial accounts, water accounts must be <a href="https://asic.gov.au/regulatory-resources/financial-reporting-and-audit/auditors/auditor-independence-and-audit-quality/">independently audited</a>. </p>
<p>For the average taxpayer, who has to justify every dollar they get from the government, it’s hard to imagine how some corporations can be given millions of dollars in subsidies without actual measurements (before and after) of the claimed <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s83UuhDxT_Y">water savings</a>. </p>
<p>If Newstart recipients need to <a href="https://www.humanservices.gov.au/individuals/services/centrelink/newstart-allowance/how-report-and-manage-your-payment">report and manage their income and have a job plan</a>, as part of a system of appropriate checks and balances, shouldn’t the Australian government also be checking whether billions spent on subsidies for irrigators actually saves water?</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-murray-darling-basin-scandal-economists-have-seen-it-coming-for-decades-119989">The Murray-Darling Basin scandal: economists have seen it coming for decades</a>
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<p>A water audit <a href="https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Committees/Senate/Environment_and_Communications/MDBCommission2019/Submissions">would cost less than 1% of the money already spent</a> on water infrastructure subsidies in the Basin. Unlike irrigation infrastructure subsidies, a water audit is value for money. </p>
<p>Importantly, independent water consumption accounts would allow the Inspector General for the Murray-Darling Basin to effectively manage our most critical nature resource, water.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/122118/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Quentin Grafton is a signatory of the Murray-Darling Declaration. He received funding from the Murray-Darling Basin Authority in 2010.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>John Williams does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>How can Australia’s new Inspector General be expected to inspect waterways without a firm grasp of how much water in in them?Quentin Grafton, Director of the Centre for Water Economics, Environment and Policy, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National UniversityJohn Williams, Adjunct Professor Environment and Natural Resources, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1199892019-07-08T20:13:11Z2019-07-08T20:13:11ZThe Murray-Darling Basin scandal: economists have seen it coming for decades<p>Nations behave wisely, Israeli foreign minister Abba Eban <a href="https://quoteinvestigator.com/2012/11/11/exhaust-alternatives/">observed</a> five decades ago, “once they have exhausted all other alternatives”. </p>
<p>One can only hope that proves the case with water policy in Australia’s Murray-Darling Basin, the nation’s largest river system and agricultural heartland.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/billions-spent-on-murray-darling-water-infrastructure-heres-the-result-119985">Billions spent on Murray-Darling water infrastructure: here's the result</a>
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<p>The ABC’s Four Corners program <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/4corners/cash-splash/11275810">Cash Splash</a>, aired last night, illustrates how thoroughly we are exhausting the options that don’t work to keep rivers being sucked dry by irrigators. Billions of dollars have been spent on infrastructure schemes that have failed to deliver any measurable improvement in water flows or the state of the environment. </p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/283004/original/file-20190708-51312-c9xhmr.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/283004/original/file-20190708-51312-c9xhmr.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/283004/original/file-20190708-51312-c9xhmr.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=549&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/283004/original/file-20190708-51312-c9xhmr.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=549&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/283004/original/file-20190708-51312-c9xhmr.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=549&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/283004/original/file-20190708-51312-c9xhmr.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=689&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/283004/original/file-20190708-51312-c9xhmr.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=689&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/283004/original/file-20190708-51312-c9xhmr.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=689&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">The Murray–Darling Basin is Australia’s largest and most complex river system. With 77,000 km of rivers, it is the food bowl of the nation.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.mdba.gov.au/discover-basin">Murray–Darling Basin Authority</a></span>
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<p>This failure is no surprise to economists who have studied the problems of the Murray-Darling Basin for decades.</p>
<p>The central problem is well understood, as are the workable (and unworkable) possible responses. </p>
<p>The basin covers four states: Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria and South Australia. All state governments have allocated permits to extract water for human uses (irrigated agriculture and urban water). The allocations grew rapidly in the second half of the 20th century, exceeding the sustainable capacity of the natural environment. </p>
<p>One sign of the failure became dramatically obvious in 1991, with an outbreak of toxic <a href="https://prototype.mdba100.aws1.adelphi.digital/articles/heartbreak/blue-green-algae-outbreak-on-the-darling-river/">blue-green algae</a> over 1,200 km of the Darling River. Algal blooms are fed by nitrogen and other nutrients in fertiliser runoff and sewerage. They continue to occur.</p>
<p>This event underlined the need to leave enough water in rivers for “environmental flows” to keep the system healthy.</p>
<p>Acting with what now seems like impressive promptness, the Murray-Darling Basin Ministerial Council (made up of the water resources ministers from the basin states, the Australian Capital Territory and the federal government) imposed a cap on water extractions in 1995. It limited extractions to the volume of water capable of being taken out <a href="https://www.mdba.gov.au/sites/default/files/archived/cap/cap_brochure_0.pdf">by the infrastructure</a> (pumps, dams, channels, management rules) that existed in 1993-94.</p>
<p>The cap was supposed to be a temporary measure. It wasn’t intended to solve the problem, just stop it getting any worse in the short run. </p>
<p>The long-term solution was to be a system of trade in water rights, introduced by the Council of Australian Governments in 1994. Combined with the right price signals from environmental purchases, this system was meant to allocate water to its most productive uses while reducing extractions to sustainable levels. </p>
<p>A quarter-century on, the cap is only now being phased out, and a vast array of measures have come and gone, including the National Water Initiative, the Water Act of 2007, Water for the Future and the Murray-Darling Basin Plan. </p>
<h2>Buying block</h2>
<p>The failure of these initiatives rests on one simple fact: the refusal of irrigation lobby groups to countenance the government buying water rights on the open market to increase environmental flows. Their opposition has been immovable, despite many individual irrigators being keen to sell their water rights and use the money to invest in alternative cropping activities or retire. </p>
<p>On the other hand, there are a lucky (often politically well-connected) few who have done very well from “strategic” purchases of water. Investigative journalist Michael West <a href="https://www.michaelwest.com.au/tandou-can-do-double-standards-in-water-purchases-in-the-murray-darling-basin/">has noted</a> the National Party’s Barnaby Joyce has been publicly hostile towards buybacks of water entitlements but authorised, as federal water resources minister, three major “strategic purchases”.</p>
<p>Instead of water purchases, politicians like Joyce have put their faith in subsidies to infrastructure, to improve the efficiency of water use. </p>
<p>The idea has a lot of intuitive appeal. If less water can be used, it should be possible to increase flows in the river system without reducing agricultural output. With rare exceptions, this appealing vision has dominated the thinking of politicians and much of the public.</p>
<p>The reality is sadly different. The failure of infrastructure-based water recovery was both predictable and predicted. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/is-the-murray-darling-basin-plan-broken-81613">Is the Murray-Darling Basin Plan broken?</a>
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<p>I pointed out the main difficulties in a <a href="https://johnquiggin.com/2012/06/02/high-cost-basin-plan-water-is-bad-for-all/">piece for ABC Online</a> in 2012. The article didn’t contain any remarkable insights. It simply stated views shared by every independent economist who has worked on the issue.</p>
<h2>The illusion of efficiency</h2>
<p>Among the many problems with infrastructure schemes, two have stood out. </p>
<p>First, the measured cost of saving water through infrastructure schemes is two to three times as much as that of buying water on the open market. </p>
<p>Second, and more importantly, much of the supposed water savings are illusory. Much of the water “wasted” in irrigation systems is not lost to the environment. Most of the water leakage and seepage from irrigation channels eventually returns to rivers through groundwater systems. So “saving” this water through infrastructure efficiency doesn’t actually add anything more to environmental flows. </p>
<p>My 2012 analysis assumed a scientifically based effort to secure water savings at the lowest possible cost to the public. As the Four Corners report has shown, that assumption was massively over-optimistic. In reality, the scheme has been characterised by lax monitoring, cronyism and rorting. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/5-ways-the-government-can-clean-up-the-murray-darling-basin-plan-116265">5 ways the government can clean up the Murray-Darling Basin Plan</a>
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<p>After the expenditure of billions in public money, the system may be worse off than before. As a result, environmental disasters keep on happening.</p>
<p>Along with recurring algal outbreaks, we are witnessing disasters such as the massive fish kills like that in western New South Wales in January. The massive fish kills have been attributed to little or no flow in the Darling River combined with plunges from high temperatures, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2019/jan/24/murray-darling-fish-kill-extreme-weather-and-low-river-flow-led-to-drop-in-oxygen-levels">starving the water of oxygen</a>.</p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/283016/original/file-20190708-51253-19lm4uo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/283016/original/file-20190708-51253-19lm4uo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/283016/original/file-20190708-51253-19lm4uo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/283016/original/file-20190708-51253-19lm4uo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/283016/original/file-20190708-51253-19lm4uo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/283016/original/file-20190708-51253-19lm4uo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/283016/original/file-20190708-51253-19lm4uo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Hundreds of thousands of dead fish in waterways around Menindee, far-west New South Wales, in January 2019.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Graeme McCrabb/AAP</span></span>
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<p>As the riverine environment keeps deteriorating, there’s no sign of any positive change in policy. </p>
<p>Eventually, though, we must hope Abba Eban will be proved right. Having exhausted all the options that don’t work, we will have to turn to those that do.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/119989/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>John Quiggin receives no current funding for work on this issue, but has received government-funded research grants for work on this topic at various times since the early 1980s. He is a signatory of the Murray-Darling Declaration, a statement prepared by a group of independent scientists and economists <a href="https://murraydeclaration.org/signatories/">https://murraydeclaration.org/signatories/</a></span></em></p>Billions of dollars have been spent on infrastructure schemes in the Murray Darlling Basin with no measurable improvement.John Quiggin, Professor, School of Economics, The University of QueenslandLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.