We met our Bridging the Gap target some time ago with 826 Gl already recovered, and work to recover the remainder of Victoria’s 1075 Gl target continues through our Sustainable Diversion Limit Adjustment Mechanism projects.
In partnership with the Federal Government, we’ve completed the biggest irrigation modernisation project in Australian history — the Connections project — which exceeded its water recovery target of 429 Gl by four gigalitres that was shared between irrigators, Traditional Owners and the environment.
All of our projects meet the socio-economic criteria agreed by all basin states and the Commonwealth in 2018 — criteria that strike a careful balance and are not barriers to getting good projects done.
As our work under the plan goes on, I will continue to do what is in the best interests of Victorians and push for balanced social, economic and environmental outcomes for the Murray-Darling Basin, as was agreed in 2012.
And we have more of these projects to come. We’re connecting floodplains to the river through the Victorian Murray Floodplain Restoration projects and delivering the Constraints Management Program.
We haven’t wasted a day. But getting these projects done right takes time — and I will push for more time to get these important projects done, so we can deliver more water to the environment while enabling stronger communities and rural economies.
At February 24’s Ministerial Council meeting, I will argue against more buybacks in favour of finishing the projects that achieve better environmental outcomes with less water and won’t harm Victorian communities.
Victorians lived through the last round of buybacks, and we know they do not work. They take water out of the consumptive pool, pushing up prices and create greater risk to the water security of local businesses.
Buybacks will not get water to key spots high up on the riverbanks or create drought refuges, and they will not help to inundate low floodplains or connect them to the river system.
It is a positive step that ministerial council meetings have recommenced after many years of inaction under the previous Federal Government, and as work on the ground and across our communities continues, I look forward to working with my ministerial counterparts to deliver the basin plan under its terms as agreed.
Harriet Shing
Victorian Water Minister
