Federal Agriculture Minister David Littleproud on Monday announced the government had reached agreement with Labor, meaning the entire Murray Darling Basin Plan, including the Northern Basin Review, will be delivered. The return to a bi-partisan approach to the Basin Plan is very welcome, and something QFF has been pleading with politicians to do for some time.
It also provides a circuit-breaker for the recent ‘politics over people’ agenda, led by the Greens, which threated to sink the Basin Plan. Their recent call for the Australian Government to split the agriculture and water portfolios only two years after that had been reunited, would have caused huge disruption and resulted in effort focused on machinery of government changes instead of delivering the Basin Plan.
Queensland farmers are also concerned about the Greens’ recent efforts to undo the Murray-Darling Basin Plan Implementation Agenda. The Greens’ voted down the Murray-Darling Basin Authority’s proposed changes to the Basin Plan following the Northern Basin Review and currently have a disallowance motion before the Senate to prevent the water recovery target being amended by the Sustainable Diversion Limit (SDL) Adjustment Mechanism.
In Federal Budget week, it is worthwhile reflecting on what fiscal reforms have been progressed in the national interest. It has now been a generation since the introduction of the GST – the last time either side has been able to achieve significant reform.
The Basin Plan was a watershed moment for Australian water policy. While no one has got, nor will they get, exactly what they want from the Basin Plan, it represents a workable way to achieve environmental outcomes while minimising the economic and social impacts on many Basin communities.
The return to a bi-partisan approach to the Basin Plan recognises the last six years of hard work by Basin communities, the states and successive Federal Governments while also ensuring its success in the future.
