The water minister says new money is coming for drought-proofing and water efficiency. 

Federal Water Minister Keith Pitt says the latest budget includes measures centred on three key areas:

  • practical support to farmers who have gone through recent droughts for improvements to their on-farm water infrastructure in partnership with states

  • reforms for water markets to ensure water users can be confident in their integrity and operation

  • measures to improve Murray-Darling Basin modelling to boost confidence for governments, water users and communities

The Government has extended the On-farm Emergency Water Infrastructure Rebate Scheme for 12 months until June 2022, allowing farmers extra access to $50 million in rebate funding from the previous budget. 

It has also pledged to form an expert panel to progress its planned reforms to Murray-Darling Basin water markets, which the government says will support water users while improving market efficiency, information and governance.

“Reforming our water markets will need strong collaboration between governments, as well as with communities,” Mr Pitt said. 

“And we’re committed to developing a state-of-the-art modelling capability for the whole Basin to ensure farmers, communities and governments can make decisions confident in the data they rely on.

“These measures are on top of the $270 million Murray-Darling Communities Investment Package announced last year to put communities and jobs at the heart of Basin Plan implementation. In 2021-22 $130 million of that is committed to support our communities.

“We have also closed the Water Efficiency Program and ruled out water buybacks, diverting over $1.3 billion to focus on off-farm efficiency projects.

“Off-farm water recovery means we can actually progress our river health targets and, unlike on-farm programs we do not reduce water availability in the consumptive pool.”