Cotton Australia General Manager had an opportunity to join Darling Downs growers at Cecil Plains this week to meet with Murray–Darling Basin Authority CEO Andrew McConville in the lead-up to the Authority’s release of the Basin Plan Evaluation and the Sustainable Rivers Audit. Earlier in the week, Mr McConville also met with irrigators and members of Border Rivers Food and Fibre in Goondiwindi.

The meetings provided an opportunity for Mr McConville to brief irrigators on the work the Authority has been undertaking as part of the required review of the Basin Plan, but it was also a great opportunity for irrigators to express their concerns around some management options – especially punitive rules changes that have been proposed by the Northern NSW Independent Expert Connectivity Review.

The Authority released the Basin Plan Evaluation and the Sustainable Rivers Audit on Thursday morning, and full details are available online.
In releasing the reports, Mr McConville said:

“This Evaluation provides strong evidence that the sustained commitment of Basin communities, industry and governments to implement the Basin Plan is working,” Mr McConville said.
“This is the most comprehensive assessment of the progress made to restore and sustainably manage the Basin’s environment and water resources.
“We have drawn on more than 30 lines of evidence, including extensive environmental monitoring, lived experience, social and economic studies, and technical information.
“Reflecting on the past 13 years, it’s important we acknowledge the challenges of Basin Plan implementation for industries and communities. This reform has not been easy.
“At a Basin scale there have been substantial benefits, but it is also the case that for some irrigation-dependent communities this reform has been tough with direct impacts.
“Collaborative efforts to manage environmental watering are getting results – keeping rivers in the north and south connected, restoring low-lying floodplain vegetation, and helping waterbirds to breed in places like Hattah and Narran Lakes. In dry years, water for the environment was the only water sustaining flows through the Murray mouth.
“Where we can deliver water, we are seeing results, and where we plan and deliver environmental water in collaboration with First Nations people, we are starting to see co-benefits that go beyond the environmental outcomes.
“Recovering 2,135 gigalitres of water has been game-changing for the Basin, and so too has the commitment of governments and regional communities to engage in water reform, persist through challenging water quality events, and sustain effort during extremes of flood and drought.
“These results also recognise the innovation of Australia’s industries which have adapted on-farm and irrigation practices, become more efficient water users, and still grown the economic value and contribution to gross domestic product from $23.6 billion in 2008 to $35.1 billion in 2021.”

Cotton Australia General Manager Michael Murray said while there is still much detail to be worked through, it was clear that progress had been made. But it was also clear the reports vindicate what many stakeholders, including Cotton Australia, had been saying since the Plan was first conceived – “It has to be more than just adding water.”
“It is clear from the Sustainable Rivers Audit that there hasn’t been the overall progress in native fish improvement that we would like, but progress will not occur till the European Carp problem is resolved and infrastructure issues such as cold-water pollution and fish passage are addressed.
“As we progress the Review, we must concentrate on optimising the results from the existing environmental pool, and taking a much more holistic approach to Basin management.”