The Basin Plan is one of the key mechanisms through which state and federal governments aim to fulfil their international obligations to prevent extinction and support the recovery of threatened species. More than a decade since the Basin Plan commenced and as key deadlines loom, this report examines whether the approach to implementation in Victoria is consistent with upholding these obligations. 

The Murray-Darling Basin, its floodplain and vital wetland ecosystems, support multiple species, including native animals and plants and migratory birds, travelling from as far away as Siberia. Rivers in the southern half of the Basin, including in Victoria, have been intensely developed to support irrigation, with major headwater storages, locks, weirs and other impoundments. This has changed the rivers profoundly – reversing seasonal patterns, depriving wetlands and floodplains of water and degrading the habitat of native species that depend on freshwater flows for their survival. Decades of water reform have attempted to correct this dynamic. 

Concern about the environment-damaging, over-extraction of water for irrigation was one of the key reasons the Murray-Darling Basin Cap was introduced in the 1990s, followed by the Water Act 2007 and finally the Murray-Darling Basin Plan 2012.