THE state government has released its full response to the Royal Commission on the Murray-Darling Basin, eight months after it was handed down by commissioner Bret Walker.
In addition to responding to the Royal Commission, the government also addressed the Productivity Commission's five-year assessment of the Murray-Darling Basin Plan.
Of the 82 recommendations made in the Royal Commission and Productivity Commission reports, the state government said it either fully or partially supported 66 recommendations and was against 10, with a further six deemed not applicable to the state government or requiring further consideration.
It said recommendations that could either see the plan delayed or focused on additional water recovered through immediate forced buybacks, were not agreed to.
Related reading: Calls for Basin Plan pause to address Royal Commission findings
The response outlines several areas of action to be taken across key topics - compliance and leadership; sustainability; recovery and efficiency; climate change; transparency; and Aboriginal engagement.
These areas of action include:
- Strengthening SA's compliance and enforcement framework, particularly regarding water theft.
- Asking the Murray-Darling Basin Inspector General to investigate the adequacy of compliance measures to achieve greater uniformity between jurisdictions
- Supporting a comprehensive Basin-wide environmental monitoring program.
- Working with the MDB Authority and governments to establish a way to determine early if an efficiency project is unlikely to meet outcomes.
Premier Steven Marshall said the government had already begun to act on three priority areas, ahead of releasing its response.
He said in the lead up to COAG and MDB Ministerial Council meetings in August, the government had pushed for the the creation of an independent umpire - which had since been delivered with the establishment of the Inspector-General role.
Related reading: Read the government's full response here
"We also wanted greater focus on improved information on the impact of climate change and further engagement and support of 'Aboriginal Nations' to identify their water values - both of which were supported.
"Our full response to both the Royal Commission and Productivity Commission reports outlines actions that will be taken by SA and reflects a range of agreements reached by Basin Governments since the release of the reports."
The Royal Commission report was handed to Governor Hieu Van Le in January, and released by the state government two days later.
At the time, Mr Marshall said the government would not be providing a "rushed response", and was unlikely to respond to the report until later in the year.
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