The federal government has delivered an updated plan for the management of the Murray Darling Basin, one of Australia's most complicated and important river systems. South Australia, Queensland and New South Wales have all agreed to the new plan - but Victoria has refused to sign on.
The Murray Darling Basin is, for so many, a precious commodity, home to 35 endangered animal species, 120 different kinds of waterbirds, and over 30,000 wetlands.
Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek has announced a revised plan that hopes to address those concerns, by extending the deadline and funding for water to be returned to the river system through buybacks. Entitlements give the licensees the right to take a certain amount of water from the system each year, but a buyback means the government can reclaim that water and send it back to the places and animals that need it the most.
The Conservation Council, now known as Environment Victoria, says the state's opposition makes no sense."Victoria's water policy was written at a time when the National Party was in power and held the water portfolio in Victoria. For some reason, despite being progressive on a number of environmental issues, has decided to maintain that position over the last decade...
"I've got 15, 16 year old children. When I went to school in the local town there was a thousand kids at the high school, now there's only 200. So with water buybacks we see is we've just lost people out of the districts because there's no jobs and that... The local voluntary fire brigade has trouble getting members, you know. All the little things like the Lions' clubs.
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