Victoria is the only basin state refusing to sign up to the $13 billion Murray-Darling Basin plan, claiming buybacks could harm river communities – despite promising a decade ago to help return 450GL to the River Murray.

Once federal laws are passed to allow buybacks, Victorian irrigators can still voluntarily sell their water entitlements.

“At the moment, if there are any negative impacts Victoria will miss out on any federal government support,” SA River Murray Commissioner Richard Beasley said, adding that “I don’t quite understand their approach”.

Beasley delivered a damning interim report into the MDB plan to Climate, Water and Environment Minister Susan Close in April this year, stating that it will take more than 1000 years to deliver vital environmental water to the Murray Darling Basin at the current rate.

Close today warned the state government is prepared to take legal action if progress is not now made on reaching targets.

Latest figures showed only 4GL of the promised 450GL of water vital to the health of the River Murray, Coorong, Lower Lakes and Murray Mouth has been delivered under the Murray Darling Basin Plan in 10 years.

“(Victoria) seems to regurgitate National Party propaganda that people selling water to the federal government will destroy the fabric of river communities and towns,” Beasley said.

“These are claims and assertions that are not supported by peer reviewed economic research.

“No one ever focuses on the impacts and the costs of having degraded rivers, there’s a tremendous among of tourism in the Murray Darling Basin for example, people don’t go into tourism regions in the Murray Darling Basin to see algal blooms and dead fish.”

Tourism revenue, which all Basin states share, amounts to about $11 billion annually, Beasley said.

Beasley said when the legislation to protect the River Murray was introduced by former Prime Minister John Howard, it was made clear that the nation was already over-allocating water and needed to find a balance with the environment.

“We just stop at the point that we are killing the system, the point that we are killing the environment,” Beasley said.

“Even that group who ‘prefers people to fish’ in general would consider it non-controversial that we should not degrade the environment through the overuse of water, and should base our efforts to restore and sustain it based on science, not press releases.”

Federal Environment and Water Minister Tanya Plibersek announced the new target date yesterday pushing out the deadline to now return 450GL to the River Murray by December 31, 2027.

This morning in Adelaide, Plibersek said it was vital to return water to the River Murray, but advice showed it was impossible to deliver the 450GL by the original deadline of by the end of 2024 agreed by basin states.

“We know for the past decade the plan has been drifting, we can’t keep letting that happen,” Plibersek said, but did not reveal how much money is being set aside for buying back water.

“Despite the fact that we have had a couple of wet years recently we know in Australia the next drought is just around the corner so we must complete the objectives of the MDB plan.”

Some farming groups and federal Opposition MPs including Liberal Barker MP Tony Pasin feared the plan would negatively impact irrigators, with Pasin claiming voluntary buybacks could see as much water as used by the Renmark irrigation district disappearing in SA.

National Party leader David Littleproud argued “the last piece of the Murray-Darling Basin plan can be delivered with water infrastructure rather than water buybacks”.

“But now the Murray-Darling Basin will not just tear up our communities, they’ll tear up your food security and push up your food bills while decimating regional and rural communities,” he said.

Standing alongside Plibersek at a press conference in Adelaide this morning, Close said Victoria was “trying to push a bit of a political line at the moment” and hoped its leaders would return to the discussion table to support the plan.

While Close said the new agreement was a significant breakthrough in removing the barriers to recovering the 450GL, she warned that the Malinauskas government would consider legal action if progress is not made.

She said about $20 million had been set aside for South Australian communities to deliver a community adjustment assistance program, saying it was the biggest investment of its kind in the state.

“After more than a decade of the Coalition sabotaging the plan, we are pleased to see strong and decisive action from federal Water Minister Tanya Plibersek to deliver it in full,” Close said.

“The 450GL is the bare minimum we need to ensure the river’s ecology can withstand the next dry spell.”