'Environmental damage': Farm visit reveals impact of revised Basin Plan

Murray River Action Group chair Richard Sargood, based at Corowa, said increased environmental flows of up to 40,000 megalitres a day will wreak havoc on the Border river system.

"If these constraints go ahead, there's going to be environmental damage in this stretch of the river for the supposed benefit of downstream communities," he said.

"Even with all this water they want to deliver, none of it will get where it's targeted."

On Tuesday, December 12, Mr Sargood joined Ovens Valley MP Tim McCurdy and Victorian opposition agriculture spokesperson Emma Kealy on a Bungowannah property to see first hand the impact of increased flows on the river.

The meeting came after changes to the Murray Darling Basin Plan passed the Senate in November.

The amendments pushed the deadline to return 450 gigalitres of water to the environment from June 2024 to the end of 2027.

The changes also allow the government to use buybacks to recover the water, which critics say will "decimate" regional communities.

Most of the water recovered under the plan will be delivered to South Australia.

Mr Sargood explained that to do this, river flows will be increased to up to 40,000 megalitres a day, "which will cause flooding and further bank erosion".

"There's tree after tree going in because of these high flows," he said.

"And as has been pointed out to me several times, the same people that would be strapping themselves to these trees if they knew they were being destroyed are the same ones that want this water to go down.

"You're damned if you do and damned if you don't."

Senior lecturer in management at La Trobe University's Business School, Dr Tim Clune, previously said the flows will be "delivered at different times under different river conditions".

He said this would prevent environmental damage.

Mr Sargood disagreed, saying, "he doesn't live on the river, and that's the trouble".

"I don't think it'll be staggered; it'll be a political decision when it's made," he said.

"Once that political decision is made, the water will come whether it's needed or not.

"And it's all going to be done based on whether the politicians think they're going to get votes out of it."

Andrew Watson, the property owner where the meeting took place, said the river ran at 40,000 megalitres per day between August 8 and September 23, 2022, according to data from the MDBA.

"That's when 52 trees went in due to saturated banks," he said.

Standing before a fallen red gum, Mr McCurdy said, "we all want a healthy river, but prove to me first that this extra water will be beneficial".

"Because with what we're seeing here, we can't see genuine proof that more water for the environment is going to be any more beneficial to the environment," he said.

"We know what it'll do on the downside: it's going to hurt our communities, and clearly, more water will not help."

Ms Kealy said she was concerned that the impacts will be felt downstream even though Victoria has not signed up for buybacks.

"What we're fearful of is that behind the scenes, state Labor is plotting to sell off Victoria's water in exchange for buckets of money that they can then get a pat on the back for," she said.

"From my understanding, there is now no way that Victoria can get out of this agreement unless they take it to the High Court.

"And even then, it will cost a lot of taxpayer money, and the case would likely fail."