The Murray-Darling Basin’s ‘top cop’ says corruption scandals are eroding trust in the $13 billion plan to recover water for the environment. Mick Keelty, the interim inspector-general for the basin, finished a tour of its southern reaches on […]
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In Australia, dead kangaroos and a scandal called Watergate are results of flawed plan for water market Australia’s Darling River was once filled with fleets of paddle steamers carrying wool to ships bound for England. For nearly two […]
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There’s broad support from communities and farmers for proper water audits. John/Flickr, CC BY-SA In the wake of a damning royal commission and an ABC Four Corners investigation, the federal government has created an Inspector General for the […]
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The latest report card evaluating the use of water for the environment at key sites along the Murray River shows a solid improvement at most sites over the past 10 years. Murray–Darling Basin Authority Chief Executive, Phillip Glyde, […]
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Immediate changes are needed to avoid the “collapse” of Australia’s longest river system, with a government agency finding over-extraction brought forward drought conditions for parts of the river by three years. In a highly critical draft review of […]
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The recent ABC Four Corners program ‘Cash Splash’ portrayed implementation of the Murray-Darling Basin Plan as a “failure and a farce”, asserting that it constituted a gross waste of public money and was producing little to no benefit. […]
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Debate over the viability of the $13 billion Murray Darling Basin Plan is likely to intensify in coming months as the region’s drought deepens, scientists and stakeholders say. Fears that the plan – backed by the Morrison government […]
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Water prices in the southern Murray-Darling Basin have reached their highest levels since the worst of the Millennium drought more than a decade ago. These high water prices are causing much anxiety in the region, and have led […]
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The ongoing drought through the Murray Darling Basin (MDB) is now the worst on record according to the Bureau of Meteorology (BOM). Speaking during a BOM seminar on climate, BOM climatologist David Jones said the drought had now […]
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Earlier this year, researchers suggested the amount of water returned to the Murray Darling Basin under a federal program has been “grossly exaggerated”, to the tune of hundreds of billions of litres. The report argued that government investment […]
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In a speech to the National Press Club this week, Deputy Prime Minister Michael McCormack pledged to bring in a new era of dam building across the country. “We know the key to unlocking the potential of regional […]
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The federal government committed to reducing water extraction from the Murray-Darling Basin. Shutterstock In 2017, the then agriculture minister, Barnaby Joyce, signed off on an A$80 million purchase of a water entitlement from a company called Eastern Australia […]
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Pressure continues to mount on the Morrison government over controversial water buybacks in 2017, with calls for both a royal commission and an immediate explanation about why officials dealt with a company domiciled in a tax haven. Labor […]
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Brett Shearwood doesn’t like to tell people what he does for a living. He worries about the response he will get because, he says, his industry is ‘on the nose’. Mr Shearwood, an irrigation farmer from the New […]
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Hundreds of billions of litres of water is missing from the Murray-Darling Basin, according to a new report. An Australian National University (ANU) study claimed the Federal Government had grossly exaggerated the amount of water being returned to […]
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Giving irrigators a licence to divert huge volumes of water is a recipe for disaster, opponents say. Aboriginal groups, graziers, environmental groups and the former commonwealth environmental water holder have urged the New South Wales water minister to […]
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In the lead up to the NSW state election, UNSW’s Professor Richard Kingsford outlines what needs to be done to protect the Murray-Darling rivers and the communities that rely on them. Rivers running dry, algal blooms, more fish […]
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The recovery in the health of major river systems such as the Barwon-Darling is likely to be delayed well after the return of good rainfall because of policy changes under which irrigators will get the first right to […]
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The deaths of a million of fish in the lower Darling River system over the past few weeks should come as no surprise. Quite apart from specific warnings given to the NSW government by their own specialists in […]
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A million fish have died in the Murray Darling basin, as oxygen levels plummet due to major algal blooms. Experts have warned we could see more mass deaths this week. Fingers have been pointed at poor water management […]
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