ABC Country Hour interview with Minister for the Environment and Water Tanya Plibersek

SUBJECTS: MURRAY DARLING BASIN PLAN, WATER LEVELS. 

WARWICK LONG: We’ll stay with water now, because a key commitment of the Murray Darling Basin Plan can’t be met according to a new independent report. The second review of the Water for the Special Environment Account (sic) – or WESA as it’s known – has found the additional 450 gigalitres to be returned to the environment from water efficiency projects can’t be delivered by 2024. So far just 2 gigalitres have been recovered to reach that 450 target. 

Reporter Kath Sullivan sat down with Water Minister Tanya Plibersek and began by asking what would happen if the target was not met by that deadline? 

TANYA PLIBERSEK, MINISTER FOR THE ENVIRONMENT AND WATER: Well, the Murray Darling Basin Plan has been with us for almost a decade. And I think it’s completely unacceptable that this key part of the plan has been left to drift for such a long time. The Water for the Environment Special Account shows us that the money is there to deliver on this commitment. What’s been missing is the will to do it. 

I think it’s important that we work together across the basin states to deliver in full on the Murray Darling Basin Plan. It’s interesting that Liberals, and in the past Nationals, have also said that they support the Murray Darling Basin Plan in full. Now it seems that we’ve got the Liberals and the Nationals fighting each other, South Australians fighting other states and territories. It’s not acceptable. We have a plan. We should stick to the plan. 

KATH SULLIVAN: To your government’s response, though, when Anthony Albanese stood up in Adelaide in April and said that a Labor government would deliver the 450 gigalitres, did he intend to deliver that by June 2024? 

MINISTER PLIBERSEK: Well, it’s always been our intention to deliver the full Murray Darling Basin Plan in full and on time. I think the fact that we’re now dealing with information that the previous government kept secret does complicate matters. But I haven’t given up hope. I am really determined to work with State and territory basin ministers to deliver what all of the states and territories have actually signed up to do. 

SULLIVAN: Well, all of the states have also signed up to a strict criteria about how the 450 gigalitres of water can be recovered. Are you expecting that you may have to scrap that? 

MINISTER PLIBERSEK: I’m going to work very cooperatively with the basin state ministers to deliver on the plan. That does mean looking at some of the settings that the previous government put in place. I am open minded about how we achieve that, and I’m still in the consultation phase with the relevant ministers and with other stakeholders. 

But what we know from the Productivity Commission review of the Murray Darling Basin Plan, from independent reports, from the Water for the Environment Special Account report that I’ve just tabled, is that a number of the barriers that the previous government put in place really have worked against returning water to the system. 

I think you could call it brown tape introduced by the National Party in particular to stop water being returned to the Murray Darling Basin system. Of course, we don’t agree with the determination from some members of the National Party to sabotage the Murray Darling Basin Plan. 

SULLIVAN: Well, the second review of WESA has suggested it could cost almost $11 billion to see the 450 gigalitres recovered in full. That’s not on time and that’s potentially shifting the parameters for the efficiency projects. Do you have $11 billion to spend? 

MINISTER PLIBERSEK: Well, I think this is another example of the problems of the brown tape that the Nationals have wrapped around the Murray Darling Basin Plan. We know that there are efficient ways of returning water to the system, and there are more expensive, less efficient ways of doing it. And it seems like every opportunity they’ve got the National Party made decisions that would make more expensive and more difficult to return water to the river system. 

Now, that’s terrible for the environment, but it’s also not good for the communities that live along the river system. I think there’s a real – a real undermining of the plan that has led to poor outcomes for people who rely on this river system. We’re talking about 2.3 million people across a million square kilometres. They’re not benefitting when the National Party sabotaged the plan that they’ve signed up to. 

LONG: That is Tanya Plibersek speaking to Kath Sullivan there. She’s the federal Water Minister. And it must be said, the 450 gigalitres is just one part of the Murray Darling Basin Plan. Over the past decade more than 2,100 gigalitres have been reallocated towards a 2,750 gigalitre environmental water target.