A new book says Australia’s 20-year water trading experiment is sucking hundreds of millions of dollars each year out of the Murray-Darling Basin and directing water away from productive land.
Morrison and Joyce have negotiated the terms of their partnership. In the open, the restored leader let the Nationals run riot, in a way we haven’t seen for a long time, writes Michelle Grattan
This year marks a decade since the Millennium Drought ended. The Murray-Darling Basin has endured a lot since, but two species are making an impressive comeback.
Neal Hughes, Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics and Sciences (ABARES); David Galeano, Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics and Sciences (ABARES), and Steve Hatfield-Dodds, Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics and Sciences (ABARES)
Marking farms more water-efficient pushes up prices twice as much as buying water back.
Researchers have collated measurements made by satellites, field sensors and people, to get a picture of the nature’s recovery while we’ve been in lockdown.
Across the NSW portion of the Murray-Darling Basin, Aboriginal people make up almost 10% of the population. Yet they hold a mere 0.2% of all available surface water.
Fish must be released into good quality water, with suitable habitat and lots of food. These conditions have been quite rare in Murray Darling rivers in recent years.
Over the next 50 years, the arid zone – containing the areas of true desert – is projected to expand well into the Murray-Darling Basin and almost entirely envelope the Lake Eyre Basin.
Daniel Connell, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University
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.
Quentin Grafton, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University
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.
Fire debris flowing into Murray-Darling Basin will exacerbate the risk of fish and other aquatic life dying en masse in a repeat of the shocking fish kills of last summer.
The Adelaide Desalination Plant will be cranked up to full capacity to free up 100 gigalitres of water from the River Murray for use by farmers.
Sam Mooy/AAP