Key events
Anne Davies
All elements of the Murray Darling Basin plan were due to be delivered by June 2024.
But many of the complex elements of the plan are way off course, putting in jeopardy the health of the river system.
About two-thirds of the water identified in 2012 as being needed for the environment was to be recovered via buybacks. A final round of acquisitions 43.9GL through voluntary buybacks initiated by Plibersek should see that task almost achieved in August.
But most of the other elements of the plan – such as using water more efficiently in the river, or removing constraints or building projects to help river health – have failed.
These alternatives were pushed for by the big irrigation states, like Queensland, NSW and Victoria.
More buybacks could make up the shortfall for the environment however buybacks are very unpopular in rural communities.
The shortfall on the 605GL of water to be achieved via projects, known as the Sustainable Diversion limit projects will be between 190GL and 315GL Plibersek says in her letter.
The other big failure is NSW’s progress on delivering detailed rules for sharing water between irrigators and other uses.
Anne Davies
The federal environment minister Tanya Plibersek has set the stage for the government to renegotiate new deadlines with the states to deliver on the Murray Darling Basin plan when ministers meet in August.
In a letter to the authority’s chair sent yesterday, Plibersek makes it clear she intends to deliver on all the targets in the plan, which was due to be completed by June 2024.
“After a decade of denial and delay by the Liberals and Nationals, it’s clear the Murray-Darling Basin Plan is off track,” she said.
“We are committed to delivering the plan in full, but to do that, we need a major course correction. Over the last year it has become clear that major elements of the plan were either left to drift or actively sabotaged,” she said.
“There were water recovery programs wrapped in brown tape, delayed projects, and unaccredited water resource plans,” she said.
“A year from the deadline, this report will give us an honest assessment of the legacy we have received, including whether the plan can be delivered on time.”
Welcome
Martin Farrer
Good morning and welcome to the live blog. I’m Martin Farrer and I’ll bring you some breaking overnight stories before my colleague Rafqa Touma takes over.
In a letter to the Murray Darling Basin authority, the water minister, Tanya Plibersek, has revealed she may have to extend the life of the water recovery plan – which was to have been completed by June next year – in order to meet all its targets. The minister said major elements of the plan were “either left to drift or actively sabotaged”.
Voting yes in the voice referendum is an “act of patriotism”, with the advisory body to be asked to focus on “new perspectives to old challenges” in health, education, jobs and housing, the minister for Indigenous Australians, Linda Burney, will tell the National Press Club today. For her rallying call, she will use a deeply personal example from her own life: the death of a friend aged just 44 from serious health problems, saying his “Aboriginality condemned him to an early death”.
The pushback against consultancies such as PwC continues today as the Centre for Public Integrity thinktank says donations from the big four consultancy firms – PwC, Deloitte, EY and KPMG – should be banned after analysis showed they gifted $4.3m to Labor and the Coalition over the past decade. In that time the value of their government contracts increased by 400% and the centre says “well-resourced players … have an undue influence on the exercise of public power”.
The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, is being encouraged to cancel plans for a China trip over Hong Kong’s warrants to arrest democracy activists.
And in some happy news, in case you missed it yesterday evening, tennis great Ash Barty has announced the birth of her “beautiful boy”.
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