Basin water Ministers met today in Melbourne, with an outcome hailed by NSW Minister Blair, as being “a deal for all”. The critical part of the agreement was a socio economic impact test to be put in place for all projects as part of the 450GL efficiency component of the Basin Plan.
Victorian Water Minister Lisa Neville and NSW Minister Niall Blair, have worked very hard on this test and the outcome is a credit to them, along with rest of the Ministers. One of the keys in this is that all states have agreed to this criteria. Inter-governmental cooperation is essential to implementing the Basin Plan. It would be difficult to see how this aspect of the plan could be successfully implemented if a future Government decided to go against a unified group of Basin states.
