Water recovery
The Murray–Darling Basin Plan sets the amount of water that can be taken from the rivers in the Basin each year, leaving enough to maintain a healthy environment.
On 22 August 2023 the Australian Government, together with the governments of New South Wales, South Australia, Queensland and the Australian Capital Territory, came to an agreement to support amendments to the Water Act 2007 and the Basin Plan 2012 to deliver the Basin Plan in full.
The resulting Water Amendment (Restoring Our Rivers) Act 2023 commenced on 7 December 2023. It provides more time, more options, more funding and more accountability to deliver on these targets.
As part of that Basin Plan, the Australian Government reaffirmed its commitment to recover the 450 gigalitres of additional environmental water for the Basin.
The Restoring our Rivers Framework sets out the Australian Government’s Approach for achieving the 450 gigalitres water recovery target, which includes voluntary water purchase.
