Murray-Darling Basin plan: government should expand voluntary buybacks, Productivity Commission finds

A river under stress: state and federal governments need to do more to protect the Murray-Darling Basin and the communities and ecosystems that rely on it, a new report says. Photograph: Jenny Evans/Getty Images

The federal government should step up efforts to recover water in the Murray-Darling Basin, including expanding voluntary buybacks and doing more to hold state governments to account, the Productivity Commission has said in a major report.

Originally agreed in 2012, the plan aimed to recover 2,750 gigalitres a year with an additional 450 GL/y from efficiency measures. But it won’t “be implemented on time or on budget”, with delays inflating costs even as the climate crisis adds to challenges, the commission’s interim review of the plan’s implementation has found.