Victoria left out of Murray Darling Basin Plan new deal over water buyback opposition

It's understood the Victorian government hadn't seen the detail of the new agreement, which extends the plan's timelines and opens it up to buybacks, until it was released publicly.

Water Minister Tanya Plibersek has declined to explain why Victoria was the only state left out of the deal, claiming "that's a question for Victoria". But she made it clear the state's stance on water buybacks was the stick point.

"At the end of the day, I mean Victoria at the moment is saying they don't support water buybacks," Ms Plibersek said.

"Well, neither does NSW. This is not NSW 'saying okay we're fine with buybacks now'. They understand that this is an issue for the Commonwealth government."

The new agreement has a specific point stating the NSW government does not support buybacks, but acknowledges to achieve the 450GL target, it will be necessary for the federal government to purchase water.

Historically, Victoria and NSW have been in lock-step on water policy and their joint opposition to buybacks. Victoria is privately furious their northern neighbours crossed the buyback picket line in an attempt to have its cake and eat it too.

Victorian Water Minister Harriet Shing pointed out her state had delivered more environmental water than any other state, and would continue to support water recovery so long as it met the agreed socio-economic criteria.

"Victoria has a long-standing opposition to buybacks and nothing we have seen in this deal has changed that position," Ms Shing said.

The federal government does not need the state's support to buyback water, but is clearly seeking consensus from all basin states.

"The Commonwealth government will be in the market to buy some water over coming years, and we don't need the Victorian government or the NSW government permission to do that," Ms Plibersek said.

The Victorian Farmers' Federation water council chair Andrew Leahy said the Albanese government was trying to blackmail the Victorian government into agreeing to water buybacks in exchange for more time and funds to complete water efficiency projects.

"Extending the time frame is a no-brainer, but to blackmail Victoria to sign up to buybacks to get more time and funding for the SDLAM projects just shows how low the Commonwealth is willing to go," Mr Leahy said.

The move to extend the plan's timeline, giving states until the end of 2026 to deliver their 605 gigalitres of water-saving infrastructure projects and the end of 2027 to recover 450GL of environmental water, has been widely accepted as a common sense way forward.

But the proposal to open the plan up to more buybacks by removing the 1500GL cap on federal government purchases has been condemned by farm groups.

National Farmers' Federation President, Fiona Simson, said today's announcement to deliver the Murray-Darling Basin Plan in full with buybacks squarely on the agenda would be met with disbelief given the Government's recent consultation.

National Farmers' Federation president Fiona Simson was outraged by the decision, given the government had sought and received more than 100 submissions on how to deliver the plan without buybacks.

"The Minister has just admitted these are yet to be fully considered, to fire the starting gun on harmful buybacks while sitting on an unread stack of alternatives beggars belief."

"Right now, there are too many unanswered questions to wave any legislation though.

"Why has the Government ignored the alternative options it asked for? How much will this unnecessary spending spree cost the taxpayer? And what will be the impact on Basin communities, and do the socio-economic tests still stand?"

NSW Irrigators' Council condemned the buyback plan, which would create shockwaves throughout basin communities

"To put this in perspective, buying back the NSW share of an additional 450GL of water will remove the equivalent of nearly half of the remaining high-security water that's left for farming in the NSW Southern Basin," NSWIC acting chief executive Christine Freak said.