(4) Compensation and Mitigation Mechanisms

Almost all the compensation paid for the reallocation of water as part of the 2012 Basin Plan has been provided to irrigators. The total compensation is A\$8.9 billion, and expenditures to date include: (1) A\$2.5 billion associated with the direct purchase of water entitlements from willing irrigators and (2) A\$3.5 billion in subsidies and grants for water irrigation infrastructure [36]. The compensation already paid represents, on average, about A\$750,000 per irrigator [60]. Given that there is no obligation for irrigators to either sell their water entitlements or to accept water infrastructure subsidies, the costs of reallocating water to the environment with the current water reform represents full compensation to irrigators for agreed to changes in their water diversions.

The approach taken to compensation and mitigation in the MDB has been to direct it to irrigators in the belief that benefits will "trickle down" to rural communities. An alternative would have been to invest up to several billions of dollars in "thriving communities" and still have had sufficient funds leftover to acquire the volumes of environmental water obtained under the actual water reform process [61]. Importantly, the Traditional Owners of the land and water of the basin, Australia's First Peoples, have received virtually no compensation for their land and water rights [62] and " ... no material increase in water allocation for Indigenous—social, economic or cultural purposes" [63]. This is despite Article 25 of the 2004 NWI highlighting Indigenous needs in relation to water access and management, and NWI Articles 52–54 requiring water plans account for Indigenous access and native title rights to water.
