“Water use across the basin is fully compliant with the Sustainable Diversion Limits set by the basin plan,” National Irrigators’ Council chief executive Zara Lowien said.
“It’s very clear that over-extraction is no longer the issue for the Murray-Darling Basin.”
The basin plan limits the amount of water that can be used to Sustainable Diversion Limits, which are approximately 28 per cent of inflows, with the rest remaining in rivers for the environment.
“Getting water usage reduced to be within these new sustainable limits was the reason for the basin plan,” Ms Lowien said.
“This outcome should send a clear signal to the Federal Government to stop and reflect on today’s issues and recognise one in three litres have come out of Australian agriculture, we must now work to make the most of the environmental water.
“Not only are levels of water usage fully within the sustainable limits, but in many areas, they are very, very far below.”
The Inspector-General of Water Compliance noted that “some areas have accumulated so many available credits that they would have to extract more water than is available in the system to become non compliant with the SDL”.
“We need government to take a good look at whether there’s enough water left available for Australia’s agriculture sector,” Ms Lowien said.
“The impacts of water reform on our food bowl are already being felt.”
“We need the Federal Government to accept that things have changed, and the job of the basin plan has been achieved, albeit at a huge cost to rural communities and our food bowl.”
