MDBP won't be delivered in full on time under current settings: secret report

The Environment Special Account (WESA) report gave a damning incitement of the Coalition government's progress towards the basin plan's 450-gigalitre target.

Only 2.6GL has been recovered during the last decade. At best, the report found an additional 390GL could be recovered by the mid-2024 deadline.

More than $1.5 billion has been set aside to fund efficient projects, however the report cited the previous government's decision to restrict funding to only off-farm projects as the major contributor to the shortfall.

"It is not possible to reach the 450 GL target through the current efficiency measures program - the Off Farm Efficiency Program - even if the WESA's time and budget limits were removed," the report stated.

"Putting aside program and timing limitations, the estimated cost to recover the full 450GL through [only] efficiency measures is between $3.4 billion and $10.8 billion."

The report was handed to the previous water minister, Keith Pitt, before last Christmas, however was kept secret and never released.

Water Minister Tanya Plibersek said it was disappointing, but not surprising, the report was never released, as it gave a damning indictment that the previous government had no intention to deliver the MDBP in full.

"They just didn't have the guts to admit that before the election... their failure to deliver on the plan wasn't due to a lack of money - it was a lack of will," Ms Plibersek said.

The 450GL target was a late addition to the MDBP, but was considered crucial to getting South Australia to agree to the national plan. Unlike the other MDBP target of 605GL, there are no legislative consequences - such as forced buybacks - if the 450GL is not reached.

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Labor has promised to deliver the MDBP in full and on time, including the 450GL, however faces a monumental task with the plan's deadline fast approaching.

"It is clear from this report that the Nationals were simply running down the clock on this money," Ms Plibersek said.

"They were deliberately hoping to leave it unspent. Indeed, the report shows that under current policy settings, there is virtually no way that the money can be spent in the remaining time frame."

The report also found four of the six constraint projects would be completed on time.

Late last week, the Nationals held a press conference in anticipation of the report's release, urging the government to uphold the socio-economic test as it pursues the 450GL target, which states any water recovered must have a neutral or positive socio-economic outcome.

Victorian Nationals MPs Anne Webster and Sam Birrell said under the test, it was impossible to recover any further water for the environment without damaging regional and agricultural communities.

Nationals senator and Coalition water spokesperson Perin Davey said more than 4000GL had been returned to the environment over the last decade, and focusing only on the 450GL target was "ignoring all the exceptional work that has gone before it".