After more than a decade of the once-vaunted basin plan, our four-year study shows 74% of success indicators were not met. That is deeply alarming Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast About $13bn in taxpayer dollars and 30 years of policy reform have failed to arrest the devastating decline in the health of Australia’s most important river system, the Murray-Darling Basin, new research shows. The four-year study released today involved 12 scientists from Australia’s leading universities, and draws on data from 1980 to 2023. It is the most comprehensive report card to date on government policies to protect the Murray-Darling. Sign up for Guardian Australia’s breaking news email Flows required to achieve environmental outcomes were not met at 65% of river gauge sites assessed. Water returned to rivers is not effectively used to restore the environment. For example, 79% of commonwealth environmental water releases from 2014–19 stayed in river channels rather than spilling out to rejuvenate floodplain wetlands. The abundance of waterbirds is declining and the incidence of very large fish-kill events is increasing, as witnessed at Menindee Lakes, NSW, twice in the past decade. Indigenous rights over water are declining as a percentage of surface water, and water flows to Indigenous-controlled wetlands has not increased. This grossly inadequate situation prevents Indigenous peoples from managing water on country, harming their health and wellbeing. The basic human right to access adequate, safe drinking water is not being met in many towns, including predominantly Indigenous communities such as Wilcannia, NSW. Continue reading...

In 1987, there was a strange trend amongst killer whales. Recent sightings show it's back in fashion.