'Dark day' as Murray-Darling Basin plan changes pass lower house

A Senate showdown on the reform now looms after the federal Labor government's Water Amendment (Restoring Our Rivers) Bill passed the lower house 85 votes to 50 on Wednesday.

The laws would put in place a new plan with all basin states, except for Victoria, after it was revealed the old agreement was not on track to meet its water recovery targets.

The original proposal aimed to return 450 gigalitres of additional water to the environment by June 2024, but the new laws would push back the deadline to December 2027.

The Murray-Darling plan outlines the amount of water that can be taken from the basin each year, while allowing for an environmentally sustainable amount to remain.

While the laws passed the lower house, the Coalition and Greens have criticised the proposal, meaning its passage through the Senate is uncertain.

Member for Riverina Michael McCormack said the passage of the bill was a "dark day for irrigation communities".

"Not only does this have a direct impact on prime agricultural farmland's access to water allocations, but the whole community's economy suffers - people sell their water allocations and leave, meaning less business for local cafes, hairdressers, mechanics and grocery stores," the Nationals MP said.

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"Public schools will also be affected as families leave the area - the impact will be detrimental and for a lot of the smaller communities, it will be terminal - ultimately river communities will be left high and dry.

"It will lead to even higher grocery bills - which are already too high under due to this government's lack of action over the cost-of-living crisis."

Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek said the new plan would allow for more money and accountability for the scheme.

"With these changes, we're opening up the full suite of water recovery options we'll be able to invest in," she told Parliament on Wednesday.

"Water purchase is never the only tool in the box, it's not the first tool at hand, but it has to be one of them."

The government has faced criticism for the proposed voluntary water buybacks as part of the scheme.

Water buybacks allow farmers to sell their water directly to the government, but have been criticised for their ability to distort water prices and drive up the operating costs of farms.

Nationals leader David Littleproud said the new plan would be "egregious" and traumatic for regions across the basin.

"Those three million people that live up and down the basin, their future has just been ripped away with the stroke of a pen by reckless ideology," Mr Littleproud said.

Mr McCormack strongly urged the government to reconsider water buybacks to achieve its additional 450 gigalitres environmental flow target.

"I crossed the floor in 2012 over water buybacks because all these amendments will do is distort the water market and drive people out of river communities," he said.

"Water buybacks is lazy policy and the minister should realise irrigation communities will fight tooth and nail against this outrageous plan. They will not just roll over and give up their productive water only to have man-made flooding just go out to sea."

Member for Farrer Sussan Ley used Griffith as an example of one of the communities that would be among the hardest hit by the plan as she joined the debate on the issue in Parliament on Tuesday evening.

"Griffith is the place where they burnt the first Basin Plan, and it has taken a long time, quite rightly, for the people of Griffith to get on board with the bipartisan plan," Ms Ley said.

The Liberal MP accused the government of failing to visit the Murray-Darling Basin to consult with communities and said members of the Coalition's backbench met with 150 people at a recent meeting in Griffith.

"Many were busy on their farms, busy with their crops and busy with their lives, but those who did come and listen couldn't believe what they heard," Ms Ley said.

"They couldn't believe that they were facing something as desperate as the very future of their town and region."

Mayors and council representatives from across the country have previously told a Senate inquiry they feared for the survival of their communities if the government reintroduced water buybacks to complete the Murray-Darling Basin Plan.

Griffith City Council general manager Brett Stonestreet said buybacks would result in "enormous detrimental" impacts on regional communities and begged the government to look at the bigger picture.

"Political opportunism wants the plan to be finalised in the shortest possible time frame regardless of the long term impacts for the people who live in regional Australia," Mr Stonestreet said.

Murrumbidgee Council general manager John Scarce said agriculture was the primary driver of economic growth in his region, contributing $167.5 million to the economy and 45 per cent of employment.

However, he said the region "has not, and possibly never will" recover from the previous round of water buybacks.

As part of the legislation, an annual progress report would be carried out to show whether water recovery targets were being met.

The Greens, who have previously threatened to block the laws, abstained from the lower house vote, saying the party would reach its final position on the proposal following a Senate inquiry.

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