River Murray Communities Call for Better Balance in Basin Plan Review

Vanessa Cook feels the heartbeat of the River Murray as if it were her own child.

She is a proud Ngintait and Ngarkat woman who also identifies with five other tribes within the Ngarrindjeri nation, and is connected to the water through her ancestors, who gave birth on its sacred riverbanks across generations.

Right now, she says the river is sick.

"We've been saying it for over 20 years that the river is sick, and if the river is sick, the people are sick and the community is sick," Ms Cook said.

"If we do not do anything about this river right now, we are going to have nothing."

She is one of around 2,500 people who wanted their voice heard during the Murray-Darling Basin Plan review.

The Murray-Darling Basin system spans more than one million square kilometres and four states. It is the lifeblood for 2.4 million people, providing them with the most precious resource needed to survive — water.

Following the Millennium Drought in the 2000s, a plan was established in 2012 to manage its resources across all water users, including for critical water, irrigation and environmental flows.

Fourteen years on, the community is calling for a better balance of priorities.

Communities feel unheard

The Murray-Darling Basin Authority's (MDBA) What We Heard report collated submissions it received during a 12-week community consultation period as part of the review.

Ms Cook is an Indigenous representative to the Murray-Darling Basin Authority, and used her submission to argue the need to return the river to health.

The basin system has been under immense pressure, experiencing the invasion of European carp and a number of droughts in recent memory, including over the past three years.

"Back in the day, they used to tell me that to your knees it was clear … that's when they used to spear the fish," she said.

"I was trying to highlight [in the submission] that the cotton, rice and almonds are taking too much water.

Many agricultural industries that rely on River Murray water have criticised the use of water buybacks by the federal government to achieve environmental targets in the Basin Plan.

A 2024 ABARES report found further water buybacks in the southern Basin would reduce the supply of water for irrigation and increase its market price, reducing agricultural production.

There is a fear that the rice industry, which supports hundreds of growers and thousands of jobs in value-added roles, is at a tipping point where lack of water and high prices might force production offshore.

"We have communities that are really hurting that could use that water for productive purposes, and the saddest part of the story is [the water] is not being well-used for the benefit of the environment," Ricegrowers' Association of Australia president Peter Herrmann said.

In its submission to the basin plan review, the association calls for "no more" water recovery and better management, including flexible trading of environmental water.

It also wants funding for infrastructure, complementary measures and community-led projects to address constraints that prevent environmental water from being delivered to wetlands.

Tallygaroopna dairy farmer Natalie Akers has been involved in the plan since its inception, and is also frustrated by the use of buybacks.

"It seems that buybacks have just become a simple measure of ensuring environmental health, and the story is not that simple," she said.

"We feel that no matter how loud we tell people of how much pain the basin plan is causing, we're not listened to."

In the next iteration of the plan, Ms Akers wants to see more balance.

The argument against buybacks has been met with submissions that call for environmental water to be a priority.

In New South Wales, Greg Ogle from Lake Poon Boon said he had seen a "snowballing decline" of wetlands and lakes.

"This has all occurred since around the year 2000, the mismanagement during the Millennium Drought and over extraction due to licence transfers has basically destroyed the ecosystem," he said in a submission.

The MDBA said while views about water use differed across the basin, communities agreed on the importance of the basin plan and wanted to see its effectiveness improved.

Next steps for the review

MDBA chief executive Andrew McConville told the New South Wales Rural Press Club that while the authority received criticism across a range of issues through the submissions, there was a lot of common ground across all communities.

"My hope, my intent, is balance," he said.

"We need to carefully consider if we're looking at changes that we fully understand and recognise the impact on irrigation communities, but communities more broadly.

Relevant submissions made to the authority will also be passed on to a review of the Water Act 2007.

A final report of the review is expected later in December.