The report from an independent inquiry into the Northern Basin Toolkit, a $160 million package of measures aimed at maximising environmental outcomes in the northern Murray-Darling Basin. 

The report finds the toolkit has severely underdelivered on its environmental commitments, with key infrastructure projects falling drastically short of their original targets over the program’s seven years.

The inquiry makes seven recommendations to maximise delivery of remaining commitments before the December 2026 deadline and identifies 11 lessons for future Basin programs. It calls for accountability mechanisms that link funding to outcomes rather than planning milestones and ensuring any reductions in water recovery targets are matched by actual project delivery. These lessons are directly relevant to the current review of the Basin Plan.

Key findings

• Policy measures have largely succeeded.
• Infrastructure measures have under-delivered.
• Infrastructure project difficulties resulted from fundamental design and governance problems.
• Public transparency has been limited, reducing accountability.
• The Australian Government funds Basin programs but depends on states to deliver them – and that only works when incentives are aligned and consequences are shared. The toolkit had neither.