The original water cuts in the new Murray-Darling Basin plan have been reduced from "3000-4000" gigalitres to 2750 gigalitres.

The Murray-Darling Basin Authority described their determination of the Sustainable Diversion Limit (water cutbacks) as making a "judgement".

"Judgements have been made about how much water the Basin and its catchment need to be healthy in the long term" it said in its draft Basin Plan.

Hopes for strong science to be the basis of decisions – or a description of the criteria used to make these "judgements" – did not eventuate.

So the MDBA has devised a figure, but it seems to have put the cart before the horse.

Instead of devising how they will restore the health of the river – through the use of technological advances and local knowledge – they have created a figure which must now be purchased.

The figure has been estimated. Nobody knows how much water is required to restore the water ways in the Basin to previous levels.

The Australian Dairy Industry Council hit the nail on the head with its request for the MDBA to analyse whether the environmental watering objectives can be achieved using the water bought so far and saved in infrastructure works planned and underway. ADIC has said it supports strategic water purchases for the environment where they are linked to water-saving infrastructure projects.

However, it says there shouldn't be any more general buyback tenders in the southern connected system before the proposed review in 2015, when it will be clearer whether that water is even needed once environmental works and other measures are taken into account.

Now that's just plain common sense. So it will probably be disregarded by the Government – especially with an election due before 2015.

The division of the MDB into north and south – with more severe cuts in the southern basin – is also a setback to the northern Victorian dairy industry. Northern Victoria is enjoying its best season in the past 10 due to improved rainfall throughout the year and the industry will benefit as a result.

We urge the Government to set diversion limits that meet its aims – not a pie in the sky figure that will please nobody.