New South Wales told to go back and try again on Murray-Darling Basin plan submissions

Up to 19 of its 20 of its water plans may be withdrawn as First Nations' groups criticise state government for inadequate consultation

New South Wales has been told to revise almost all of its detailed 20 water resource plans (WRP) after they failed to pass muster with the Murray-Darling Basin Authority and were criticised for failing to include input from Indigenous groups.

The NSW plans are a critical building block in the overall Murray-Darling Basin plan covering many of the important tributaries and 100km of the Darling. They were originally due in February 2019, but were only submitted in June 2020. They set out detailed rules about who has rights to water, the licensing regime, when water can be extracted by agriculture, measures to protect water for the environment and rights to cultural water for indigenous people.