This week the Australian Parliament will decide on the future of an Amendment to the Basin Plan to improve how environmental water can be used and delivered.

This vote could also determine the future of the Basin Plan itself.

In recent weeks there has been much debate and criticism about the amendment—and yet, what Parliament is being asked to decide is actually quite uncontroversial.

Parliament is simply being asked to continue with what it agreed back in 2012—proper implementation of the Basin Plan as it was intended, in full and on time.

The Basin Plan has always included a mechanism for the development and implementation of a range of projects to ensure that water recovered for the environment is used as effectively and efficiently as possible, to deliver the best possible environmental outcomes.

This is because it was always recognised that recovering water alone would not be sufficient to achieve optimum environmental benefits—that water would need to be paired with works and water management reforms so it could be used when, where and how the environment needs it.

Over the past hundred years, the river's management rules and infrastructure have been geared to delivering water for consumptive use—we need to reform the system so it can deliver for the environment too.

The amendment currently before Parliament is the beginning of the process the Basin Plan sets out for achieving this.

It works in the following way.

The states develop case studies for projects that can improve how the river is operated, or to build new infrastructure to achieve better results for the environment.

For example, these projects will see us better able to repair wetlands and billabongs, and to get water to some floodplains where it's needed more often. They will improve rules governing river operations to allow water through the river system at times when the environment needs it and in the volumes it needs.

MDBA quantifies the potential environmental benefits of these projects using a CSIRO-approved methodology combined with the best available information.  We have calculated that the potential environmental benefits of these projects is equivalent to 605 GL of water.

The MDBA makes an independent, expert recommendation to amend the Plan to allow work on the projects to continue, so they can be fully developed and implemented.

Also tied to the amendment is the recovery, through efficiency improvements with positive or neutral socio-economic impacts, of an additional 450 GL of water for the environment.

This is where we are now.

If Parliament accepts the MDBA's independent, expert recommendation and allows the amendment to stand, the projects will then be fully developed, consulted upon and implemented by the state governments over the next six years.

The MDBA monitors the projects during that six year period to make sure they stay on track.

Most importantly, there is a safety net in the Basin Plan. 

If the projects have not delivered their modelled water savings by 2024, there is a legislated reconciliation process to ensure that any shortfall is recovered—so the environment cannot be short-changed.

We know that the Plan is working.  Where environmental water has been delivered, there are clear positive ecological responses.

The Plan has already secured 2100 GL of water that will be returned to the environment each and every year in perpetuity.  Year on year, the environmental benefits of this water will continue to grow and compound.

However, if the Amendment is scuppered and the states walk away from the Plan, it will be the worst blow dealt to Australia's environment in many years.

This is no time for one-sided debates or political point-scoring—there is too much at stake.

We urge all parties to remain united behind the Basin Plan that will secure the future of our nation's most iconic river system and the communities that rely on it.

Murray–Darling Basin Authority (MDBA)