The Murray-Darling Basin Plan controversy

Monday night's Four Corners program 'Pumped: Who is benefitting from the billions spent on the Murray-Darling' contained a number of allegations which suggest that the Murray-Darling Basin Plan is being undermined. The NSW Government has since announced an inquiry in relation to the allegations. Of the many allegations made in the program, one which stood out in particular was a 'Plan B' discussed between a senior water bureaucrat and irrigators, which was for the State of NSW to walk away from the Basin Plan altogether. Since the Four Corners program, the NSW Government has announced its reaffirmed commitment to the plan, but questions are likely to remain as to how firm that commitment really is under a scheme that involves balancing the interests of the basin as a whole and the potentially competing interests of NSW, Victoria, Queensland, the ACT and South Australia.