There are two fundamental problems with the current approach to reform in the Murray Darling Basin:

1. Basin communities have not been part of the consultation and negotiation process for the new arrangements. The only key stakeholders from the Rudd Government's point of view have been the State Governments.
2. Commonwealth investment in water buyback, infrastructure improvements and structural adjustment are being rolled out slowly in an ad hoc fashion, with no consideration for the social, economic, environmental or structural impacts of where water is bought, or irrigation infrastructure investments are located.

What we need is a targeted and integrated approach.

The Greens believe the solution lies in giving basin communities the tools and support they need to plan for the future.

This is why we're calling for the Government to move away from the current ‘bitsy' approach to spending the $12.9 billion Water for the Future fund of buying water back from individual farmers - in favour of an approach that prioritises funding for integrated planning, where groups of farmers and irrigation districts get together and map out where they will upgrade irrigation structure versus where they will sell back water and use structural adjustment funds to change to other crops and land uses.

Their current approach is delivering what ACF's Dr Arlene Buchan described to the Senate inquiry as a "Swiss cheese" effect - with holes in irrigation infrastructure where individual irrigators have been forced out by financial pressures... making it harder for their neighbours to maintain existing irrigation infrastructure... and making it even harder for them to improve it.

This "Swiss cheese" approach increases both the risk of stranded assets and the likelihood of the economies of local communities dropping below sustainability thresholds.

The Greens do not want to see some of our smartest and most efficient farmers walking off productive land because of the uncertainty... or because of financial difficulties that have nothing to do with the profitability of their enterprises, and everything to do with the costs of credit at a time of extremely low water allocations.

Taking a strategic approach to targeting infrastructure investment based on planning at the irrigation district level (with the support of the best available science on its future prospects) is the best way to minimise this risk, while at the same time helping to build community engagement at a time where community support is at its most valuable.

This is why the Greens are putting forward the MDB 2010-2050 plan.

Its aim is to develop a vision for the Basin in 2050 of a vibrant community, sustained by a healthy river system that delivers food, fibre and ecosystem services to the nation - with all the plans underway by 2010.

We are calling on the Commonwealth to:

• Resource and support community planning as a matter of priority;
• Enable communities to produce plans which integrate infrastructure investment, water sales and structural adjustment, and
• Provide incentives and support for them to do so;
• Give integrated community plans priority in assessing funding applications;
• Empower the Murray Darling Basin Authority to develop an interim, non-binding Basin Plan, that suggests likely sustainable water use targets for individual catchments, as quickly as possible;
• Create community planning support teams and resources - to produce decision-support tools including district maps with overlays of relevant information.

Many of the witnesses to the recent Senate inquiry also backed calls to speed up investment in infrastructure through an integrated and targeted approach - including NFF, ACF, NSW Irrigators, Prof. Mike Young and the Bondi Group.

The Greens believe that a more consultative and democratic approach will generate a fairer, more robust and sustainable outcome.

The kind of perverse outcomes we've seen to date from the intergovernmental agreement process reflect the narrow self-interest of the States... and wouldn't have survived an open public debate:

• like a new pipeline to extract an additional 75 Gigalitres for Melbourne from the system at a time of crisis;
• a definition of 'critical human need' that is not restricted to the core survival requirements of drinking water, health and sanitation but can include piggeries and golf courses;
• or a plan to return extraction to sustainable levels that won't come into operation until 2014 (or 2019 in Victoria).

The Greens will be moving amendments in the Senate this week to tackle each of these problems... so stay tuned.