THE introduction of a bill for more transparent water management may just add another layer of red tape, according to a river advocate.
Last week, Member for Barwon Roy Butler introduced a bill into the New South Wales Parliament to increase transparency around Murray-Darling Basin Water Agreements, allowing concerns to be raised before an agreement is signed.
The Water Management Amendment (Intergovernmental Agreements) Bill 2025 prevents the NSW Government from entering into any agreement involving the Murray-Darling Basin with the Commonwealth or other states, until at least 15 sitting days after the draft agreement has been made available to members of Parliament.
These changes will have no impact on the current operational management of water.
Several Intergovernmental Agreements have been entered into since the Murray-Darling Basin Plan was implemented in 2012, which have had serious impacts on the distribution of water.
“Traditionally, these Intergovernmental Agreements between the Basin states and the Commonwealth have been negotiated and agreed to behind closed doors,” Mr Butler said.
“Although NSW ceded some of their constitutional rights to the Commonwealth to enable these Water Agreements, it’s still important that parliamentarians have some visibility over what’s being negotiated before they are in place.
“My bill will shed light on Murray-Darling Water Agreements before they are finalised, giving us the opportunity to share feedback on the potential impacts.”
River advocate and grazier Kate McBride believes that this could mean another level of red tape on water recovery.
“I think there are a lot of people around the country that just want to get on with water recovery,” she said.
“If we actually look at it. the Basin Plan was originally due to be finalised last year.
“But you know there has been extensions, but that’s not an excuse to just continue to kick the can down the road.
“This just feels like another layer in which it’s going to slow the process to actually get real water back in our rivers.”
Ms McBride, who is based at Barraroo Station (between Menindee and Wilcannia) said it could be another mechanism that slows the Basin Plan down.
“The reality is no-one’s asking for anything more than what was originally agreed to in the Basin Plan back in 2012,” she said.
“The bill might mean more transparency in the process. But we just need action on something that’s already so behind schedule and so much money has been spent on it.”
Ms McBride said Mr Butler has done a lot of the electorate of Barwon but the fight for water in our river system won’t benefit from being slowed down.
“The lower end of the Darling Baaka, which is in Roy’s electorate, is probably the sickest part of the whole basin,” she said.
“We need him to be fighting for more water to put back in the rivers.”
