Infrastructure is always a vexed issue. The program is full of pork barrelling, whoever is in power. Even when that’s not involved, what to build and when it should be built is often contested.
Quentin Grafton, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University
Knee-jerk responses to water insecurity won’t fix the basin. The harder and longer path is delivering real water reform, including transparent water planning enshrined in law.
The Murray-Darling Basin Plan does not prioritise the environment enough.
AAP Image/Dean Lewins
The Murray-Darling Basin Plan has been politically fraught and mired in scandal. But environmental monitoring suggests that the health of the rivers is indeed improving – even if it will take decades.
Premier Jay Weatherill talks to the media about the Murray-Darling Basin rescue plan in Renmark in the Riverland of South Australia.
AAP
SA Premier Jay Weatherill has announced a Royal Commission into breaches of the Murray Darling Basin agreement. But will it solve the long running problems with river management?
Under the proposal, irrigators would have to submit a statement that tallies with aerial images of their water use.
AAP Image/Cubbie Group
Allegations of water theft have thrown the Murray-Darling Basin Plan into crisis. The solution could involve users declaring their annual water use, subject to random audits - like a tax return.
Irrigation pumps along the Barwon River in New South Wales.
AAP Image/Dean Lewins
The system that allocates water use in Australia’s largest river basin relies on a shared commitment by states to uphold the rules. New allegations of water theft threaten to break that trust.
The Murray-Darling Basin is an incredibly complex ecological system.
Mike Russell/Flickr
A recent report argues more water is needed to resurrect the Murray-Darling Basin. But simply increasing river flow alone could actually harm the Basin.
The Murray-Darling is a complex freshwater ecosystem.
Murray River wetlands image from www.shutterstock.com
It’s full steam ahead for bringing vast increases in farming to northern Australia. In fact, probably too fast to adequately consider the environmental impacts.
The Murray River in 2007, at the height of the drought. Hopefully it will be more resilient next time around.
Scott Davis/Wikimedia Commons
As El Nino looms, the Murray-Darling is facing another drought. But after almost a decade of investment in water trading and other policies, its prospects are better this time around.
The Murray-Darling: a complex river system with a complex set of regulations to match.
AAP Image/Caroline Duncan Photography
Water isn’t straightforward. And by putting the Nationals in charge of policy for water assets like the Murray-Darling Basin, the government will trigger a complex round of bureaucratic musical chairs.
Spending on water-saving infrastructure could expose Murray-Darling farmers to debt and drought.
Michelle Bartsch/Flickr
The federal government’s approach for the Murray-Darling Basin Plan has shifted again, and now favours water-saving infrastructure over purchasing water rights. But is it the right move? The new scheme…
Carp have spread throughout Australia’s waterways - but CSIRO is hoping to bring a new genetic weapon to bear on them.
Kletr/Sutterstcok.com
A genetic modification that creates male-only populations could give us a new weapon against invasive fish such as carp that plague our waterways. “Daughterless technology”, which works by removing females…
Managing Director, Triple Helix Consulting; Chief Executive Officer, Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research; Professorial Fellow, ANU Fenner School for the Environment and Society, Australian National University
Associate Professor of Environmental Economics and Policy, School of Environment, Science and Engineering, and Fellow of the Marine Ecology Research Centre, Southern Cross University