Delivering a healthy working Basin - Our 10 Key points

Our 10 key points

1. Our vision is for a healthy working Basin

Our vision is for a healthy, working Murray–Darling Basin that supports strong and vibrant communities, resilient industries, including food and fibre production, and a healthy environment.

This is why we have developed a draft Basin Plan that takes a balanced and adaptive approach to water management and hardwires in the need to optimise social, economic and environmental outcomes. It also includes check points along the way to 2019, when the Plan will be fully implemented.

2. The Basin Plan is the next step of the journey

Communities and governments have been working towards balanced water use for decades. Since the Basin-wide cap on surface water use in 1995, significant work has been done to recover water for the environment through a range of government programs such as The Living Murray, state water sharing plans, Australian and state government water purchases and investment in water-saving infrastructure.

This draft Plan is our current thinking on the next step in the journey to recover water to achieve a healthy working Basin.

 We are proposing that surface water use in the Basin is limited to 10,873 gigalitres per year (GL/y) on a long-term average. This represents a reduction in water use of 2,750 GL/y (compared to 2009 baseline diversions).

There has already been progress in achieving this total reduction. Accounting for contracted water recovery to date, there is 1,468 GL/y left to be recovered for the environment across the Basin by 2019.

Including all efforts since 2004, by 2019 around 3,573 GL/y of water will have been recovered for environmental use in the Murray–Darling Basin.

The Authority is also proposing a Basin-wide long-term average limit of 4,340 GL/y on groundwater use.

Communities and governments have undergone significant water reform to date. Some places have already 'done their bit' to achieve balance within their catchment. Others still have a way to go. Overall there remains a need to continue the effort toward 'whole-of-basin' health.

3. We have a robust starting point

We are confident that we have a robust starting point for the journey to 2019.

We have used a model that looks at flows at 122 sites throughout the Basin (called a hydrological indicator site approach) to underpin our work. This is a more robust approach than the end-of-system flows method used previously.

The hydrological indicator sites approach has been peer-reviewed throughout its development. The most recent review was completed by a group of leading scientists, under CSIRO's national research flagship Water for a Healthy Country. These reviews give us the confidence that we have a “sufficient basis to begin” an adaptive management process.

In the context of “learning by doing”, science will play an ongoing and central role in the management of the Murray–Darling Basin. We will be setting up an advisory group under the Water Act to oversee this future work program.

4. It's more than just a volume of water

The science confirms there is no single volume of water or number that will guarantee the health of the
Murray–Darling Basin.

How water is used, how the rivers are run, and how the Basin's landscapes are managed all contribute to Basin health. There needs to be continued effort in natural resource management activities (such as pest and weed management and revegetating river banks and floodplains), to complement the use of environmental water.

Water use is also limited by constraints and rules. For example, in some parts of the Basin, water delivery needs to be carefully managed to avoid flooding communities. Another example is that water acquired for the environment must mimic the operational rules historically attached to the entitlement. Constraints and rules limit where and how much water can be sent through the system at any one time.

These constraints and rules can change, if governments agree and third party impacts are addressed. However, it is important to point out that under the current system, entitlement and operational constraints make it almost impossible to achieve some environmental outcomes (such as watering all of the extensive floodplain on the lower reaches of the Murray, including Hattah Lakes and the Riverland) no matter what volume of water is delivered. In that sense, what might be desirable must be tempered by reality and common sense to achieve what is possible.

River management is ongoing, and this Plan supports a forward process that is flexible and allows communities, river operators and users, and their governments to continually learn by doing. The processes of monitoring, evaluating and adjusting have been hardwired into the draft Plan.

5. We'll review progress at 2015

There will be a mid-point review at 2015, so we can monitor and evaluate and adjust where necessary on our way to 2019.

We acknowledge that the numbers could and should change, based on new knowledge, including further science and research, community impact, local involvement and the results from environmental watering programs.

We will also be setting up an advisory committee to help determine any such changes.
This means the numbers are a starting point in a process to monitor, review and revise over the next seven years.

6. Any savings from a 'rules review' will see the volumes adjusted.

As part of the 2015 review, Basin ministers have agreed to look at how existing river management arrangements (rules and practices) and environmental works and measures could improve the efficiency and effectiveness of water use. Their decision to put in place a work program to undertake this 'rules review', which was recommended by the Tony Windsor chaired parliamentary inquiry into the Basin Plan, can be regarded as a substantial step in state-based river management.

Any savings made as a result of achieving these efficiencies will allow the numbers to change.

7. The northern Basin is different to the southern Basin.

We recognise that the northern Basin is different to the southern Basin.

It has more variable climate and rainfall, it is less regulated and less developed, and water is managed in a different way. This presents both opportunities and challenges.

Very little water from the north can reach the mouth of the Murray in the south, unless nature intervenes and brings heavy rainfall and big floods (providing only 18% of flows to the Murray Mouth under natural conditions). Northern catchments, where they are connected, will only be required to make a downstream contribution to the water needs of the Barwon–Darling through to the Menindee Lakes.

Managing water in the northern Basin is quite different from the southern Basin. In particular, because of a different rules framework, fewer public storages (dams), and highly variable connectivity between catchments and tributaries to the Barwon–Darling, there is a need to consider alternative approaches to river management.

For this reason, in collaboration with the New South Wales and Queensland governments, we will initiate a Northern Basin Committee of community representatives to work with the Authority and support local and catchment-based groups to address these matters.

8. One size doesn't fit all.

As the north is different from the south, we also recognise that different catchments have different levels of environmental health and communities are affected differently by change.

Therefore, the draft Basin Plan is not a 'one size fits all' approach. It allows us to be flexible and adapt, and emphasises the importance of drawing on local knowledge to better manage the different parts of the Basin.

If a catchment has already recovered its required amount of water, on-going monitoring and river management will, of course, need to continue. We see these catchments as opportunities to further develop natural resource management and 'whole-of-catchment' management opportunities.

Where more needs to be done, governments must focus their efforts on support for adjustment and inevitable change.

9. How water is recovered will affect social and economic impacts

The Water Act 2007 specifically states that the Act does not authorise compulsory acquisition of water access rights. The Australian Government has committed to 'bridge the gap' through water-saving infrastructure and water purchases. No water holder will have their entitlements reduced or compulsorily acquired as a result of the Basin Plan. However, there is likely to be flow on impacts from water recovery in some communities, particularly those with small populations that are highly reliant on irrigation.

Where social and economic impacts are likely, appropriate responses will need to be considered. There needs to be a concentrated effort by governments to enhance the economic capacity of communities (both water and non-water related) as well as a clear demonstration of an investment bias toward water recovery that supports infrastructure, both on and off farm, as well as environmental works and measures.

There is 1,468 GL/y of water left to be recovered to meet the proposed limits on surface water use. Of this volume, it is estimated that 400 GL/y could be recovered through future investments in water-saving infrastructure, including changes to the infrastructure and operation of the Menindee Lakes. This leaves a gap of about 1,000 GL/y to be recovered through other measures.

When water purchases are used as a tool for water recovery, the type of water purchased (i.e. the mix of high and low security water entitlements), how that water is used, whether it is traded on the water market and how it is managed and incorporated into the entire system must be clearly articulated by Basin governments through clear business plans and management rules. This applies particularly to water recovery activities by the Australian Government and water management by the Commonwealth Environmental Water Holder, other environmental water holders and the Authority.

10. Localism is critical

We fundamentally believe that local communities need to be engaged in the management of their part of the river system. That will require support from government.

Localism is about using local people to find localised solutions to achieve the objectives of the Basin Plan. Opportunities for local input have been built into the Plan to ensure that communities are given the chance to have their say over the next seven years and beyond in the ongoing development and implementation, including the management of environmental water.

The next opportunity for local input is during the 20-week consultation period of the draft Basin Plan.

We look forward to hearing your views.