00:00:11
Everybody needs to have healthy rivers.
00:00:13
No-one wins when our rivers die.
00:00:17
And what's been happening
for a long time now
00:00:19
is we've pulled so much water
out of the rivers
00:00:24
that they're living
as though it's drought,
00:00:27
ages before the drought itself
actually arrives.
00:00:31
NARRATOR: Australia's great
river system, the Murray-Darling,
00:00:34
is vital to the health of the driest
inhabited continent on earth.
00:00:38
The Murray-Darling Basin Authority was
established by the Australian Government
00:00:43
to set the minimum requirement
of environmental water
00:00:46
needed to keep the system sustainable.
00:00:48
Following extensive consultations
with key groups throughout the Basin
00:00:52
and over many years,
the Authority proposed a target
00:00:56
of environmental flows
to restore the river to health.
00:00:59
What you get for communities,
out of a Basin-wide plan,
00:01:04
is for the first time enough water
held back for environmental purposes
00:01:10
to make sure that the rivers themselves
and the wetlands around them
00:01:14
remain healthy.
00:01:16
NARRATOR: The target provides
00:01:18
for the equivalent of 2,750 gigalitres
of surface water
00:01:22
to be returned to the environment
to benefit such important sites
00:01:27
as the Lower Lakes and Coorong,
00:01:29
Hattah Lakes and Yanga National Park,
00:01:31
the Macquarie Marshes, Basin rivers,
00:01:34
and other important habitats.
00:01:37
I think we all understand that
in any system, in any walk of life,
00:01:41
a balanced approach
makes a lot of sense,
00:01:44
and that's the way it is too
with rivers.
00:01:46
We know that over many, many years,
we got the balance a bit out of whack,
00:01:51
and there's been good effort
in repairing that balance
00:01:55
and rectifying it
over the last 20 or so years,
00:01:58
but we know
there's a bit more to be done.
00:02:00
NARRATOR: The Government wanted to
achieve better environmental outcomes
00:02:03
through increased environmental flows.
00:02:06
Recently it announced $1.7 billion
to remove key constraints
00:02:12
and recover an additional
450GL of water for the environment
00:02:17
by 2024
through infrastructure projects.
00:02:24
Put simply, it means more water.
00:02:27
And more water means better
environmental outcomes.
00:02:42
TONY BURKE: The Murray-Darling Basin
00:02:44
is the largest integrated
production asset
00:02:46
from a farming perspective
in the nation.
00:02:49
There's nothing like it.
00:02:51
It spans all the way - Queensland,
New South Wales, the ACT, Victoria
00:02:55
and then through to South Australia.
00:02:59
NARRATOR: Over the years,
we've changed how the rivers run.
00:03:02
We've built dams, we've changed the
seasonal flows to meet irrigation needs.
00:03:07
More water now stays in the channel,
00:03:10
less gets through to the lower reaches
and out to sea.
00:03:13
We've changed the natural relationship
between our rivers and the floodplains.
00:03:19
In a dry, arid continent like ours,
water is everything
00:03:24
and getting water policy right
00:03:27
in a way that's sustainable
for the long term
00:03:30
is exactly what a continent like ours
needs.
00:03:33
NARRATOR: The Murray-Darling Basin
00:03:35
contains some of the country's
most diverse
00:03:38
and rich natural environments.
00:03:39
It is home to some two million people
00:03:42
and is a critical cultural feature
of many Aboriginal communities.
00:03:46
It provides habitat for 95 threatened
species of animals and fish
00:03:51
that are dependent on its water
00:03:53
and is critical to Australia's economy
00:03:55
and food production.
00:03:57
TOM HATTON: The best climate science
that we have on offer
00:04:00
suggests that it is quite likely
00:04:03
that in the next 20 to 30 years
the Basin could be,
00:04:06
on average, roughly 10 or 11% drier
00:04:09
which is quite significant in a Basin
where the flows of the rivers
00:04:14
are already somewhat compromised.
00:04:16
NARRATOR: The volume of water that flows
through the Basin's rivers is much lower
00:04:21
and more variable than other great
river systems around the world.
00:04:25
More water flows through
00:04:27
the Amazon River in just one day
00:04:29
than travels through the River Murray
00:04:31
in a year.
00:04:32
Because of the millennium drought,
00:04:34
vast amounts of salt
could not be flushed out to sea
00:04:37
and acidity threatened some areas.
00:04:40
TONY BURKE: The key to being able
to get better outcomes on salinity
00:04:45
is to be able to get the extra volume
down the river.
00:04:49
Salt discharge is a critical issue here
00:04:54
and it's often not appreciated upstream
00:04:57
that there is a massive
environmental service
00:04:59
that the extra water for the environment
provides
00:05:03
in terms of getting the salinity
out of their part of the river
00:05:07
and ultimately sending it out to sea.
00:05:09
There's ongoing pressure in the river
from salinity.
00:05:11
As the rivers dry up through extended
droughts and withdrawal of water,
00:05:17
that also creates an acidity problem.
00:05:20
And in the past ten years,
we've seen the emergence
00:05:23
of some very serious acidification
of parts of the river.
00:05:36
LYNDAL CURTIS: Here is the Minister,
Tony Burke.
00:05:38
(Applause)
00:05:45
The game changer came in 1991.
00:05:50
It should have been 1981 when the mouth
of the Murray closed for the first time
00:05:55
but that once again only impacted
on one State.
00:05:58
But it was in 1991
when the game changer arrived
00:06:02
and a new player turned up
to the negotiating table.
00:06:06
In 1991, the new player arrived
with a blue-green algae outbreak
00:06:13
that went for a thousand kilometres
00:06:17
and the environment turned up
to the negotiating table
00:06:21
and proved to be more ruthless
and less compromising
00:06:26
than any of the States.
00:06:28
The environment turned up to the
negotiating table in 1991 and said,
00:06:33
'If you're going to manage the river
this way,
00:06:36
then none of you can have the water.'
00:06:39
Effectively,
the rivers decided collectively
00:06:45
that if we were going
to manage the water
00:06:48
as though it stopped
at State boundaries,
00:06:51
then the water was willing to stop.
00:06:54
Up until now, we've never taken
a step back and said,
00:06:58
'OK, for the health of the whole Basin,
where do we need to get to,
00:07:02
what are the volumes required,
00:07:04
what are the methods of management
that are required?'
00:07:07
So up until now, communities have been
asked to do a little bit more
00:07:10
and then we come back a few years later
00:07:12
and we ask them to do
a little bit more again.
00:07:14
This is the first time we've had
the experts take a step back and say,
00:07:18
'Basin-wide, what's required?'
00:07:20
That gives communities a certainty
that they need,
00:07:24
but also then means
we can get about knowing
00:07:27
that we have a sustainability benchmark
00:07:31
that can see us through
for the years ahead.
00:07:33
NARRATOR: The Commonwealth's
Water Act 2007
00:07:37
was followed by an agreement between
the Australian Government
00:07:40
and the Basin states
to fix the imbalance
00:07:42
between water taken for the environment
and water taken for human use.
00:07:47
I'll never forget,
I'd been in the portfolio
00:07:49
I reckon for about a fortnight,
00:07:52
when meetings that were being called
for the purposes of sharing information
00:07:57
looked on the TV
as though they were closer to riots.
00:08:01
And the passion and anger
that was coming out of communities
00:08:04
for a document that, you know,
had come out independently
00:08:09
was a really, really strong level
of concern.
00:08:13
Look, I think at the heart of it,
00:08:16
there were some people
who were opposed to the reform,
00:08:19
but by and large I think the anger
within those communities
00:08:23
was because people were saying,
00:08:25
'If you're going to fix
the health of the river,
00:08:28
there are other ways of doing it
that don't destroy our town.'
00:08:32
DONNA STEWART:
The first guide was, you know,
00:08:35
'This is it, this is what
we're giving you and you do it,'
00:08:38
and we were talked at, didn't have
the opportunity to have input
00:08:43
when the Authority first came around.
00:08:45
This is an entirely different approach
00:08:48
and that's why it's getting
the reception that it is up here.
00:08:52
Anybody who says
that the objective of the reform
00:08:56
is somehow to return the Murray-Darling
back to its natural state
00:09:00
is talking a different language to me.
00:09:03
We have a working Basin,
we will always have a working Basin,
00:09:07
and what I want to make sure
is that that working Basin
00:09:10
is as healthy as it can possibly be.
00:09:12
Without a plan, we will fail.
00:09:18
Let's agree and accept it now -
no plan takes us nowhere.
00:09:22
NARRATOR: Farmers and rural communities
00:09:25
felt productive capacity
was being threatened,
00:09:28
which would endanger livelihoods
00:09:29
and have adverse consequences for
businesses, jobs and house prices.
00:09:33
Australia's ability to grow the food
it needs to feed itself
00:09:37
was also seen as being put at risk.
00:09:40
TONY BURKE: I listened to the messages,
00:09:43
and I tried to use that anger that
communities were feeling to say,
00:09:47
'Well, how can we find a way of still
achieving the benchmark of the reform
00:09:52
that works with communities?'
00:09:55
and I do believe
that's where we've landed.
00:10:04
The water doesn't respect boundaries
00:10:07
as it goes from one State to another,
00:10:09
so we need to run the Murray-Darling
Basin as a Basin-wide system.
00:10:15
And what that means is you look across
the needs of the whole Basin
00:10:18
and you say, 'How much water do we need
to reserve for environmental purposes
00:10:24
to be able to keep the system healthy
Basin-wide?'
00:10:27
And only a national plan can do that.
00:10:31
NARRATOR: The aim is to restore
our rivers to health
00:10:34
and ensure strong regional communities
and sustainable food production
00:10:39
by striking the right balance
between water for the environment
00:10:42
and water for people.
00:10:44
TOM HATTON: From an ecological
point of view,
00:10:47
a healthy Basin is one where
the floodplains get watered
00:10:50
every few years, at least,
00:10:52
where the natural cycling of nutrients
and salt is in a good balance,
00:10:59
where feral animals and weeds
don't greatly distort
00:11:05
the ecological balance
in the river system itself.
00:11:09
From a social point of view,
00:11:11
those values are very important,
culturally, aesthetically, spiritually.
00:11:16
So is making money.
00:11:18
And getting that balance
is also important.
00:11:21
NARRATOR: The plan balances water
for the environment
00:11:24
and for people to drink and to use
for agriculture and for other purposes.
00:11:29
The equivalent of 2,750 gigalitres
per annum of surface water
00:11:34
will be returned to the environment
by 2019.
00:11:38
The Plan also means
that within the next 12 months,
00:11:41
a constraints management strategy
will be put in place.
00:11:45
Removing the capacity constraints
then allows us
00:11:48
to use the extra 450 gig
for large environmental events,
00:11:53
which means we can reach
some higher wetlands,
00:11:56
which means we can get
some better inundations
00:11:58
into those environmental sites.
00:12:00
CRAIG KNOWLES: We know
that there are opportunities
00:12:03
to look at some of the constraints
00:12:06
in the system as they're called,
00:12:08
assume they can be fixed,
00:12:10
removed, altered
to use less water for example,
00:12:14
to achieve the same environmental
outcomes.
00:12:18
And so, you can do that
by investing in engineering solutions,
00:12:24
which you see up and down the Basin.
00:12:26
TONY BURKE: The Authority
have delivered a plan
00:12:29
which has the figure 2,750
as the number in the plan.
00:12:33
That is the number
for environmentally held water
00:12:38
once they've done the calculations,
under current constraints
00:12:42
of what they believe should be
00:12:43
the environmentally sustainable
level of take.
00:12:46
Now, I've always said that I thought
the environmental outcomes of 2,750
00:12:52
fell short of what this reform
should be able to achieve,
00:12:57
and there's a mechanism that allows me
to improve on that,
00:13:00
but I'll get to that in a moment.
00:13:01
In fairness to the Authority,
00:13:03
there is a reason why 2,750 is the
number they have recommended,
00:13:07
and that is that
once you go beyond 2,750
00:13:10
with the constraints
that are currently in the system,
00:13:12
for extra gigalitres of water,
you don't get a significant
00:13:15
environmental improvement.
00:13:17
Those constraints
are things like river rules
00:13:21
that prevent you from releasing
dam water beyond certain levels,
00:13:25
channels where if you try
to put more water
00:13:27
than the capacity of a channel allows,
00:13:30
instead of the water going down
the system, it just goes out.
00:13:33
These capacity constraints
create a challenge
00:13:36
in using higher volumes of water,
00:13:38
and therefore the Authority,
00:13:40
having to look at the system
as it currently stands,
00:13:43
quite rightly said,
'Within those current constraints,
00:13:46
2,750 is the number that we arrive at,
00:13:50
and that has a series
of social, economic
00:13:54
and environmental consequences.'
00:13:56
If we work on the basis that you take,
for example,
00:14:00
there are 18 different targets
of river flow within the Murray -
00:14:05
the flow targets.
00:14:07
Current status quo, before we had
any environmental water,
00:14:10
none of the 18 were being met.
00:14:12
At 2,750, 11 of the 18 get met.
00:14:17
But if we are able to release those
capacity constraints that I described,
00:14:23
and put the extra volume in
that I'll refer to in a moment,
00:14:28
we go to 17 out of 18 of those
flow level targets being reached.
00:14:34
So, the mechanism that's in the plan
says this -
00:14:40
at 2,750, there are environmental,
social and economic consequences.
00:14:45
If governments can interact
with the plan and improve any of those
00:14:51
without sacrificing the other outcomes,
then they're allowed to do that.
00:14:56
That means
there will be State governments
00:14:59
that look at the 2,750 figure
00:15:02
and the mechanism within it and say,
00:15:04
'How can we achieve
the environmental outcomes
00:15:06
without requiring so much buy-back?'
00:15:10
NARRATOR: Some bridge heights
may need to be raised,
00:15:13
outlets from water storages enlarged,
00:15:15
and flood easements
purchased from landowners.
00:15:18
CRAIG KNOWLES: What's left to be done
will be done by sensibly using water,
00:15:23
investing in infrastructure,
00:15:24
looking at the opportunity to strive
for efficiencies,
00:15:28
making sure environmental water is used
as effectively as it can be.
00:15:32
TOM HATTON: It is so important now
that we have a chance
00:15:35
to restore
some of the flows in the river,
00:15:38
that we drought-proof
that river a little bit more
00:15:41
than we have in the last decades,
that we restore some flow,
00:15:44
particularly to get ready
for those years
00:15:46
when the droughts will come back.
00:15:48
NARRATOR: An adjustment mechanism
built into the Plan
00:15:51
will enable
the sustainable diversion limit
00:15:54
to be changed in ways
that provide benefits
00:15:56
to the environment and communities.
00:15:58
The Plan allows the States to come up
with projects
00:16:01
to achieve the desired
environmental benefits
00:16:04
but use up to 650 gigalitres less water.
00:16:08
My view is if a farmer's smart enough
00:16:11
to be able to manage the resources
up and down over time
00:16:13
depending on what's happening,
00:16:15
we should be able to as communities
and governments as well,
00:16:19
and that's what our plan reflects.
00:16:20
NARRATOR: Between now and 2016,
00:16:24
projects that deliver equivalent
environmental outcomes with less water
00:16:28
can be identified and fully considered.
00:16:31
In 2016, a final decision will be made
about any change to the SDL
00:16:37
that will be allowed
as the result of these projects.
00:16:40
By 2019, the 2,750-gigalitre benchmark
should have been achieved.
00:16:47
By 2024, the additional 450GL
will have been recovered
00:16:53
and all the new environmental benefits
from the additional water
00:16:57
will have been met without any
disadvantage to irrigation communities.
00:17:02
TONY BURKE:
We talk about infrastructure upgrades
00:17:04
and all the different language we use,
00:17:06
but effectively what we're saying is,
the Government helps pay
00:17:09
for better equipment
than what people currently have.
00:17:12
TOM HATTON: With the Basin Plan building
on recent changes in entitlements,
00:17:16
putting more water in the river,
00:17:18
we are going to be in much better shape
for the next drought.
00:17:22
This is one of those
once-in-a-generation opportunities
00:17:24
that you have where the moment is there
that you either say,
00:17:29
'We're going to run this
as a Basin-wide system'
00:17:32
or, 'We're going to play the game of
throwing it into the too-hard basket
00:17:36
just like generations have before us.'
00:17:39
I'm really proud that this is the time
00:17:42
that Australians, people living in the
Basin and across the Parliament,
00:17:47
seem to be willing to grab the moment
that's in front of us
00:17:50
and say, 'No, we'll be different
to the previous generations.
00:17:54
We will get a plan in place
to run the Murray-Darling Basin
00:17:59
as an integrated Basin-wide system.'
