NSW withdraws seven ‘flawed’ water resource plans, throwing doubt on Murray-Darling Basin plan

Labor says plans ‘should never have been submitted’ by former Coalition government ‘because they were never going to get accredited’

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The New South Wales government has withdrawn seven water resource plans – including for three of the state’s biggest catchments of the Barwon-Darling, the Gwydir and the Namoi rivers – after it was told by the Murray-Darling Basin Authority that they were inadequate and would be rejected.

The plans set rules on how much water can be taken from the basin system and on how water is shared between towns, agriculture and the environment.

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