Victoria has rejected a revamped plan to recover water for Australia’s largest river system, shunning federal Water Minister Tanya Plibersek’s calls to sign up to a new deal alongside NSW and other states in the Murray-Darling Basin.

Plibersek declared on Tuesday she would give the states an extra three years, to 2027, to meet water recovery targets under the $13 billion Murray-Darling Basin plan. But in return, she has opened the door to more controversial voluntary buybacks from farmers.

Minister for the Environment and Water Tanya Plibersek said states would financially and environmentally benefit from re-committing to the plan. Credit: Alex Ellinghausen

Victoria’s Andrews government has for years championed farmers’ opposition to the plan and blocked voluntary buybacks, arguing that the loss of irrigation water entitlements harms regional economies.

The basin plan was agreed between the federal, NSW, Victoria, Queensland, South Australia and ACT governments in 2012 to restore river health by recovering roughly six Sydney Harbours’ worth of water – or 3200 gigalitres – principally from farmers, who had been allocated unsustainable volumes of water for irrigation.