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Environment and Water Minister Tanya Plibersek has struck a deal with all states along Australia’s largest inland river system bar Victoria that will extend the deadline to return water to the environment from irrigation.

Plibersek on Tuesday urged Victoria to sign on to the revised Murray-Darling Basin water-sharing plan agreed between the Commonwealth, NSW, South Australia, Queensland and the ACT.

Minister for the Environment and Water Tanya Plibersek said states would financially and environmentally benefit from re-committing to the plan.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen

She said states would financially and environmentally benefit from re-committing to the plan, receiving extra funding and more time to deliver on elements of the water-sharing scheme.

Plibersek said she believed Prime Minister Anthony Albanese had spoken to Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews about his state’s position and she had had discussions with her state counterpart.

“This is an excellent deal for states,” she said. “If Victoria is not interested in updating its funding agreements, then that’s a matter for them.

“My door will always be open for Victoria joining on … it’s certainly in the interests of Victoria to do so.”

The Murray-Darling Basin Authority has forecast that inflows to major rivers could halve by 2060 under the current trajectory of global warming.

The basin plan was agreed between the federal, NSW, Victoria, Queensland, South Australia and ACT governments in 2012 to restore river health by recovering water principally from farmers, who had been allocated unsustainable volumes of water for irrigation.

Plibersek last month said she was working with state governments to extend the plan’s July 2024 deadline, warning it was expected to fall 750 gigalitres short of its 3200 gigalitre target – equivalent to 1.5 Sydney harbours.

On Tuesday, she announced that as well as extending the deadline, there would be more options to deliver the remaining water, including water efficiency infrastructure projects and voluntary water purchases.

“This is an important moment for basin communities and for any Australian who cares about the health of our environment,” she said in a statement.

“Australia is facing an environmental emergency. The Murray-Darling pumps life into the heartland of our country. If we don’t act now to preserve it, our basin towns will be unprepared for drought, our native animals will face the threat of extinction, our river ecosystems will risk environmental collapse, and our food and fibre production will be insecure and unsustainable.”

Plibersek accused the former Coalition government of sabotaging the Murray-Darling Basin Plan.

“The plan has been off-track now for a number of years. The previous government deliberately delayed, and I would say even sabotaged, the Murray-Darling Basin Plan,” she said.

Plibersek said the scheme was designed to avoid an environmental disaster that compromised endangered species and wetlands and left 3 million people who rely on the river system for drinking water in a precarious position in the event of a drought.

“We can’t stand by and allow [that],” she said. “We’re making sure we set the river system up for the future.”

with Mike Foley

Cut through the noise of federal politics with news, views and expert analysis from Jacqueline Maley. Subscribers can sign up to our weekly Inside Politics newsletter here.

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