Murray-Darling Basin

The majority voted against this motion, which means it failed. It was introduced by National Party Leader Barnaby Joyce.

Motion text

That the Senate—

(a) notes that:

(i) the Murray-Darling Basin Authority (MDBA) has modelled the average annual inflows into the Murray Darling Basin (MDB) at 31 599 gigalitres,

(ii) the modelling of these inflows covers a 114 year period from 1895 to 2009,

(iii) the MDBA has not used the past 2 years of data on inflows in calculating the average inflows into the MDB as listed in the draft basin plan,

(iv) the past 2 years have seen record rainfall in the Murray Darling,

(v) the MDBA has acknowledged that including the 2010-12 river inflow data would change inflow calculations by 0.13 per cent or 32 gigalitres of water, and

(vi) the MDBA has stated that 'long term average inflows do not simply translate into estimates of sustainable diversion limits';