"The key messages within ' Strengthening the Restoring Our Rivers Bill ' represent a critical turning point and it is a wonderful step forward in water reform in Australia.

The bill puts in place actions to implement the Water Act 2007 and sets an important new direction and effective actions towards establishing sustainable water diversions from our Murray-Darling.

It empowers the original decision to convert water licences to tradeable water entitlements, an action which transferred billions of dollars from the public sector to the private sector so the Commonwealth could purchase water from willing sellers, under the just terms required by our Constitution, for public good to retore ecological functions of our river.  These actions today have restored a key and cost-effective tool to return our rivers to a more sustainable level of water extraction.

The First Nations people have largely been overlooked in Australian water reform but today a long overdue amendment, which not only ensures that the Basin Plan acknowledges and adequately outlines First Nations people’s connection, history and water needs, but seeks evidence of how environmental water holders have considered First Nations values and uses and involved First Nations in environmental watering decisions.

Finally, it is encouraging to see that at long last there is a commitment to establish an ‘independent integrity audit’ a need I, Quentin Grafton and others have been advocating for many years.

This is good news indeed."

The announced agreement between the government and the Greens to increase water buybacks and provide specific funding for access of First Nations to the water market is an important step to achieve further equitable outcomes of the Murray Darling Basin Plan.

The original infrastructure improvements have so far failed to achieve the water savings that were projected, and it is important to be agile and adjust the plan to changing needs.

However, achieving equitable water sharing also means addressing the declines in employment and income opportunities related to water buybacks and from shifting water from productive agriculture to the environment. While the increased production cost can be shifted to consumers, the loss of local employment, business opportunities and the flow-on to services cannot be easily shifted.

The money invested in the buybacks is hardly ever reinvested in the rural community, but most likely moves to money centres on the Eastern seaboard. This is a negative 'externality' of using the water market for environmental buybacks. In contrast, increasing water use efficiency retains the money locally.

It is important to supply necessary water for the environment. But we need to be careful that the rural communities, already doing it tough through droughts and floods, are not further disadvantaged. There is an urgent need to provide additional opportunities in natural resources and the environment, including agriculture, to support flourishing rural communities.

What is striking about this deal is that it includes $100 million for First Nations people to participate in the water market and an amendment to legislation to better recognise First Nation people's connection, history and water needs. This goes some way towards recognising the importance of rivers and wetlands to Aboriginal people in the Basin. This is important as Aboriginal people have been somewhat overlooked in these processes. Rivers and wetlands are important cultural places with long histories of Aboriginal people's use and care as well as being important ecologically.

The removal of the cap on water purchases (buybacks) strengthens the government’s capacity to negotiate with Basin water users in a meaningful manner. The lack of the capacity to utilise buybacks as a potential negotiating tool has meant that there has been little incentive for existing water reduction commitments to be fulfilled. To date it has largely been all carrot and no stick.  So, while the removal of the cap on purchases does not mean that buybacks will be used extensively, it now means that they can be.  That shifts the focus for future Basin outcome negotiations.

Its important to note that enabling buybacks is one part of legislative reform to enable more equitable, more effective and more transparent utilisation of Murray Darling Basin waters in the delivery of economic, environmental and cultural outcomes for farmers, communities and First Nations people.

This deal is an important step in securing the long-term health of the Basin’s ecosystems, especially in ensuring that sufficient water will be available to protect ecosystems during future droughts. The deal also supports First Nations water access and despite delays, will help ensure the goals of the Plan can be delivered in the long-run.

We welcome today’s announcement to get the Basin Plan back on track. We’re yet to see details but the high level agreement is encouraging. We urgently need to restore more water for the health of the river, support affected communities and remove unviable water offset projects.

An independent audit and greater accountability measures are needed to give public confidence in the $13 billion reforms. The federal government now urgently needs to ensure Australia's water laws provide for Indigenous water rights and interests, and secure minimum river flows under a changing climate in the Basin.

Australia is the driest inhabited continent and consequently, much of the fauna and flora are adapted to arid climates. But aridity is an extreme condition, and life is difficult. When we take water from their environment, we can push the flora and fauna to the limits of their survival, and over the edge to extinction. Returning environmental flows closer to their natural levels provides the platypus, rikali (water ‘rats’), fish, frogs, crayfish and other invertebrates the water they need to survive. 

Extracting too much water stops rivers from flowing, leading to a build-up of toxic pollutants including pesticides, herbicides, and fertilizers. Too many nutrients can cause extensive algal growths which smother the surface resulting in deoxygenation and fish kills.  Often these algae are toxic to humans, livestock and wildlife. When water stops flowing it warms up and becomes deoxygenated, conditions that few species can survive.  

The water buybacks are a vital initiative to restore the health of Australia’s major river system.

I welcome the announcement today that the Greens and Labour have come to an agreement on the Restoring Our Rivers Bill. Purchasing water is the only effective way to ensure that sufficient water is made available to meet the environmental needs of the Basin in a timely way. Perhaps even more importantly, the commitment to the Aboriginal Water Entitlement Program begins the journey towards reconciliation and equity for Indigenous people in water management.

Politics is about the art of the possible, and this arrangement grants the entire nation space to reconsider and re-evaluate past policies. We need to look after the Murray River for present and future generations to create sustainable development policies, laws and norms that resonate with all stakeholders. An independent integrity audit is a clear duty of all levels of government, and in itself may well expose sharp practices.

Extensive economic analysis has repeatedly shown that voluntary repurchase of water rights from willing sellers is the most cost-effective way of returning water to the Murray-Darling system. As well as benefitting the environment, the funds paid to farmers assist them in making new on-farm and off-farm investments, thereby providing economic support to local communities. Under the previous government, these policies were obstructed because of the resistance of irrigation industry lobby groups, which sought to lock in existing structures at the expense of the environment and of individual farmers.

This is a historic opportunity to realise sustainability for the rivers of the Murray-Darling Basin. The challenges of delivering on the agreed quantities of water for the environment by previous Commonwealth and state governments effectively stalled restoration of the rivers of the Murray-Darling. Agreeing to buybacks from willing sellers provides that opportunity to reinstate and achieve those targets and help restore the rivers.

Guaranteeing the 450GL in law will make all governments accountable for the national environmental asset. The Murray-Darling rivers are a national asset for all Australians and particularly those communities including First Nations people that rely on these rivers. We have to avoid catastrophic fish kills and future effects of climate change.

The commitment to auditing is welcomed. We need to be able to know where the water goes and not just rely on modelling. Providing flexibility to access water for the environment from the Northern Basin is important because it realises the value of the floodplains and rivers of the Darling-Baaka with major wetlands of international importance like the Macquarie Marshes, Gwydir wetlands and Narran Lakes. Passing this legislation will provide the future road map for the rivers, their environments and people.

This 27 November 2023 deal to deliver 'Restoring Our Rivers' Bill is a gamechanger. Australia needs sustainable water diversions; the Basin Plan was about achieving this goal. Unfortunately, since the Basin Plan passed in 2012, with bipartisan support, we have failed to do what we agreed to do. This deal, and what’s in the Water Amendment, is a big step forward to delivering the Basin Plan.

This is because it will allow (legislation has prevented this since 2015) the Commonwealth to purchase water from willing sellers for the environment. Change is needed because voluntary buybacks cost many times less per litre than on and off-farm water infrastructure; infrastructure has also spectacularly failed to deliver the volume of water legislated for under the Basin Plan.

This deal includes $100 million to First Nations, a critical need. For the first time, there is a commitment to establish an ‘independent integrity audit’. I, and my colleague John Williams, have been arguing for an audit for many years. An audit is urgently needed to ensure ‘value for money’ for taxpayers and is essential so that everyone knows the ‘Who, What, When and How’ of water diversions and consumption so we can effectively manage ‘water for all’.