Buybacks included in 2023 breakthrough agreement to get 450GL of environmental flows into Murray-Darling

South Australia's commissioner for the River Murray, Richard Beasley SC, said the 2023 agreement reached on the Murray-Darling Basin Plan was good news for its integrity, and for the environment that the plan was designed to restore and protect.
Image courtesy River Murray Trails

A breakthrough agreement to deliver the Murray-Darling Basin Plan in full including the 450 gigalitres of environmental flows passed the Australian parliament in 2023.

With the exception of Victoria, all Murray-Darling Basin Plan states and the federal government agreed to deliver the plan in full including legislating for voluntary buybacks, the most cost-effective and efficient way to deliver water back into the system.  Allowing for willing water holders to sell water for the environment was argued to be an essential tool for delivering environmental flows but was controversial and opposed by the Liberal party members of parliament in Canberra and South Australia.

Under the 2023 agreement, about $20 million was set aside for South Australian communities to deliver community adjustment assistance, the biggest investment of its kind in the state. The agreement included extending the time to deliver the plan, recognising that delivery by 2024 was impossible just 2two gigalites were delivered over the previous decade. The new deadline for delivering the 450 gigalitres was December 31, 2027.

South Australian Greens party senator Sarah Hanson-Young worked with Labor government water minister Tanya Plibersek to deliver the plan in full.  South Australia's commissioner for the River Murray, Richard Beasley SC, said the agreement reached on the Basin Plan was good news for its integrity, and for the environment that the plan was designed to restore and protect: “The 450GL for enhanced environmental outcomes has been a long time coming and, while there will be some details to consider, the new deal puts an end to the unlawful abandonment by prior governments of this part of the plan and provides a real pathway for the recovery of this vital additional water.”