New South Wales and Victoria are threatening to pull out of the Murray-Darling Basin plan if the Senate votes to knock out changes that would reduce the environmental water recovery target for the northern basin, raising the stakes on tomorrow’s vote.
The 70GL cut to the environmental water recovery target, representing a 18% reduction, has been recommended by the Murray-Darling Basin Authority after an inquiry.
But it has divided farmers in the region and is being opposed by environmental groups, scientists and the Greens, who have moved to disallow the regulation in the Senate.
The Greens argue that the MDBA has failed to take account of the scientific evidence that the basin plan is failing to deliver for the environment and the cut should not proceed.
The NSW and Victorian governments held urgent talks on Tuesday about the impending disallowance vote, warning it could “kill off” the entire Murray-Darling basin plan.
“This disallowance vote undermines important reforms that helped fix a 100-year-old problem, and hurts the communities who have sacrificed and worked tirelessly to make the basin plan a success,” said the NSW regional water minister, Niall Blair.
“It takes us back to square one and NSW will need to seek a new agreement directly with Victoria in order to deliver healthy rivers and one in which people, not politics, are put first.”
Labor has indicated it would back the disallowance motion as has the Nick Xenophon Team. But both have left the door open for the government to negotiate on a separate raft of changes, which affect the southern basin and would have a more direct effect on South Australia.
“My intention is to ensure that the entire plan is delivered,” said the shadow minister for environment and water, Tony Burke. “Ever since Barnaby Joyce became water minister some people have thought it might be possible to only deliver half of the plan.
“Labor is in negotiations with the government and is determined that the Murray-Darling basin plan is delivered in full.”
The federal assistant water minister, Anne Ruston, said: “There is a very real and imminent danger that Victoria and NSW, probably followed closely by Queensland, would pull out.
“Playing political games just because we’ve got a South Australian election and putting this plan in jeopardy is a very serious thing to be doing.”
But the Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young said Victoria and NSW were “trying to blackmail” the Senate. “We are sick and tired of upstream big corporate irrigators ripping off our river and leaving us high and dry.”
The National Farmers’ Federation, irrigator organisations and Cotton Australia are supporting the change to the water recovery target.
“The Murray-Darling Basin plan was written in a way to allow adaptive management, with enough flexibility to utilise new knowledge and to adjust operational management of our rivers to get better ecological outcomes from held environmental water while eventually providing certainty for the river and river communities,” they said in an open letter to parliamentarians.
“While not everyone in the basin likes the plan, everyone has been working towards achieving it and delivering a balanced plan. Today that hangs in the balance and we are concerned that we are on the verge of seeing the efforts of many thrown away, compromising future environmental outcomes.”
However, the Australian Floodplain Association, representing graziers and small farmers, opposes the cut, as do several councils in the basin.
The Greens are also preparing to disallow the changes to the southern basin plan – also before the Senate – under which 605GL of water would be saved via projects aimed at increasing water efficiency, rather than buybacks.
Environmental groups remain sceptical about the effectiveness of the project, while South Australia wants it linked to a pledge to restore 450GL to the lower Murray by 2024.
Labor’s shadow water minister, Tony Burke, has said he is open to discussions with the government on both disallowance motions, if the government is prepared to make a firm legislative commitment to the extra water for South Australia.
The NFF is supporting changes to the southern basin, saying they would improve the ability to manage environmental water and make a real difference to the improving the ecological sustainability of our rivers.
“Without these changes, all the basin plan will achieve is a volume of water that cannot be effectively delivered – billions of taxpayer dollars spent on a number,” the NFF said.
Ruston called for Labor to be “reasonable and rational” and to support the government’s changes.
Hanson-Young said if Labor flipped and supported the government changes, it would “go down like a lead balloon in South Australia”.