THE NSW government will not support the draft plan to manage the Murray-Darling Basin.
NSW joins South Australia and Victoria in rejecting the Murray-Darling Basin Plan, which recommends returning 2750 gigalitres of water to the river system annually.
NSW Deputy Prime Minister Andrew Stoner and Primary Industries Minister Katrina Hodgkinson have slammed the plan as "unacceptable", saying it will have major impacts on NSW communities.
Mr Stoner said the plan fails to outline environmental benefits it is aiming to achieve.
"The draft plan will have major impacts on our communities, and the MDBA (Murray-Darling Basin Authority) has only provided limited information on the benefits that this massive intervention may achieve," he said in a statement.
He said the NSW government remains committed to effective water reform in the basin but would not support the plan in its current form.
"We firmly believe the Basin Plan should pursue environmental outcomes via infrastructure, environmental works and a smarter management of the basin, instead of the blunt and simplistic Commonwealth approach of non-strategic water buyback programs."
The MDBA released the draft plan in November, commencing a consultation process that concludes on Monday.
In its submission to the draft plan, the NSW government has requested the MDBA develop a NSW environmental water recovery program, create implementation requirements for basin states and outline costs to NSW of implementing a Basin plan.
Ms Hodgkinson said the submission was developed after an extensive consultation process with NSW basin communities.
"There remains insufficient detail or justification around the volumes to be recovered, where the water will be recovered from and how it will be managed without damaging infrastructure and environmental assets and even inundating private and public lands," she said.
"The Commonwealth must take heed of the many points raised in our submission and remake this plan so that it provides clear economic, social and environmental outcomes for the entire Basin."
