Murray-Darling Basin Plan Update: December 2025

Emma SOLOMON 0:29 My name is Emma Solomon. I'm the Branch Head of Water Markets and Regulatory Policy in the Water Policy Division at DCCEEW. In opening this webinar, I'd like to acknowledge the Traditional Owners of country throughout Australia and recognise their continuing connection to land, waters and culture. I pay my respects to Elders past and present, and acknowledge and welcome First Nations people joining us today. We are joined today by several senior leaders of the department who are responsible for implementing Basin Plan policies and programs. We've got Christine McRae, the Branch Head for Water Recovery; Rob Mundy, the Director of Murray-Darling Basin Economics, Evidence and Engagement; and James Howard, the Director of Murray-Darling Basin Strategy and Policy. We'll be going through a number of items today.

First, we'll look at strategic water purchasing and get an update on Bridging the Gap. We'll get progress on the delivery of the 450 gigalitres for the environment, including the Resilient Rivers Water Infrastructure Program, Voluntary Water Purchase, and the Sustainable Communities Program. We'll also get an overview of the Water for the Environment Special Account Review that finished up in September. I'll give a Water Markets Reform update and briefly talk about upcoming reviews. We don't have First Nations Water programs on the agenda today.

There's a lot of consultation currently occurring in this space and a lot of information on our website. I'll just give some housekeeping notes. This is our 10th webinar on Basin Plan implementation. The webinars are about information sharing, and while most of the information is provided via updates on the department's website, we recognise that many people find these webinars useful and the best way to receive the information. They are a good way of keeping lines of communication open. We're only covering information and answering questions on matters being delivered by the department and aren't able to comment on political or hypothetical statements. For matters led by the MDBA and other agencies, please refer to their respective websites for the most up-to-date information and their communication and engagement processes.

Lastly, I'll mention that this webinar is being recorded and, along with the transcript, will be put on the DCCEEW website. Please use the Q&A tool to ask questions at any time, and we'll aim to leave about 20 minutes for questions at the end after the presentations.

I know many of you are familiar with the current settings, but I'll give a very brief recap of our progress to date. In 2023, there were significant policy and legislative amendments introduced, including the 450 gigalitre framework. That has given us the tools to accelerate progress on Basin Plan implementation. We've rolled out major initiatives to recover the 450 gigalitres for the environment, voluntary water purchases, water-saving infrastructure programs, and new partnerships for land and water management. The government has lifted water recovery from 27 gigalitres in mid-2024 to nearly 170 gigalitres recovered to date. The programs are now positioned to deliver more than 400 gigalitres by the end of 2026. We're also supporting Basin communities through the Sustainable Communities Program.

I'll now hand over to our first presenter, Christine McRae, who will provide an update on strategic water purchasing. Thanks, Christine.

Christine MACRAE 4:42 Thanks, Emma. Good morning, everyone. This section covers the Bridging the Gap purchasing that we're doing. Just as a reminder, Bridging the Gap refers to purchasing water to achieve Sustainable Diversion Limits (SDLs) that were set in 2012, and it's largely focused on the Northern Basin. We've had good progress in the past, which we've covered in previous webinars.

We've bridged the gap in the Lachlan and in the Murray. However, we still have some catchments with a gap. At the last webinar in August, I provided an update that surface water in the Condamine-Balonne had been breached in that catchment. So we're no longer purchasing surface water in the Condamine-Balonne. We closed an open tender for groundwater in the Condamine-Balonne in late August, and I'm pleased to say that we've started accepting offers for groundwater there last week. We'll continue to accept offers and negotiate into the new year. It was very pleasing to receive some tender responses in the groundwater market, which had previously been quite a challenging catchment to purchase water in-so a very positive outcome.

We still have gaps in the NSW Border Rivers and the Namoi, particularly in the Border Rivers where we are still at the four-gigalitre mark. We also have a gap in the NSW Barwon-Darling. However, we're in conversations with NSW about possible solutions to that situation in the Border Rivers and the Namoi. We updated our trading strategy a few months ago to indicate that we will be approaching the market to engage brokers to try and source willing sellers in those catchments. We have a tender out at the moment to engage brokers to act on the Commonwealth's behalf. That tender is closing tomorrow. We're hoping to receive responses from water brokers, estate agents, and stock and station agents who would like to act on our behalf and find willing sellers in those catchments. We're anticipating that once those brokers are on board, we will be using those services and working with them in the new year-probably in February-in those catchments to try and secure willing sellers and value-for-money offers towards those volumetric targets. Hopefully, that'll be a positive start to 2026.

Many people would be aware that long-term diversion limit equivalent (LTDLE) factors were updated for some NSW catchments, and this has had an impact on some Bridging the Gap targets in NSW. The main impacted areas are the Macquarie, Castlereagh, and the Murrumbidgee, where due to changes in those factors from NSW and endorsed by the MDBA, new gaps to SDLs have opened in those catchments. I just want to clarify that we are not purchasing in those catchments currently. There is no approved purchasing program for the Murrumbidgee or the Macquarie-Castlereagh to bridge the gap, and we are looking at options to address those gaps in the most straightforward and sensible way possible.

Many would be aware that some over-recoveries from Macquarie-Castlereagh were counted towards the 450, and we're looking at options for what can be done. We'll advise as we reach a decision on those in the coming weeks and months. But I want to make it very clear in this webinar: there is no active purchasing in the Macquarie for Bridging the Gap and no active purchasing in the Murrumbidgee for Bridging the Gap either. I know some stakeholders are quite concerned about that.

That's probably me done for Bridging the Gap-handing over to whoever's next.

Emma SOLOMON 8:23 Thanks, Christine. That takes us to James Howard, who will give an update on delivering the 450 Implementation Plan. Thanks, James.

James HOWARD 8:31 Thanks, Emma and thanks Christine. So I'll give an overview of how we're tracking to the 450 gigalitre for the environment target under the Basin Plan, and provide some of the latest figures from the recent implementation plan which was released in November.

As those attending today likely know, the framework for delivering the 450 gigalitres of additional environmental water details how the Australian Government proposes to meet the 450 gigalitre Basin Plan target. The framework itself sets out how the government will meet the target through three programs: the Resilient Rivers Program, the Voluntary Water Purchase, and the Sustainable Communities Program. It also included an implementation plan update to show the progress for each of the programs. We publish a regular update to show you all how we're tracking against these programs. The last implementation plan update, as I flagged, was released in late November and illustrates the progress made since the launch of the framework in July 2024, showing a significant increase in water recovery towards the 450 gigalitre target, from 27.5 gigalitres, or about 6% of the total target, to 169.8 gigalitres, nearly 170 gigalitres, or 38% of the target as of the end of September.

That volume is made up of 145 gigalitres of water registered to the Commonwealth, that's water transferred to the Commonwealth Environmental Water Holder and being used for enhanced environmental outcomes, and around 24 gigalitres contracted between the Commonwealth and Basin States or other proponents, but not yet transferred to the Commonwealth Environmental Water Holder.

With recent announcements from the Australian Government, we're now on track and have plans in place to recover over 400 gigalitres by the end of 2026, so about this time next year. That includes more volume recoveries from new water-saving projects that Christine will update in a moment, and further water purchases to happen throughout the end of this year and early next year.