NATIONAL IRRIGATORS’ COUNCIL

MEDIA RELEASES

Advocating for the Australian irrigated agriculture industry

NIC Media Release: Now Is The Time For Stability - Irrigators Submit To Basin Plan Review

23 April 2026, Sydney, NSW: The National Irrigators’ Council (NIC) met in Sydney today to finalise a response to the Murray-Darling Basin Plan Review, issuing a sneak peek.

“The balance has been struck when it comes to sharing water, with three-decades of reforms shrinking the share for farmers by one-third,” said NIC CEO, Zara Lowien.

“The Government’s own science says there’s no need to further reduce water from farming, showing 92% of environmental indicators across the Basin’s rivers would not change.”

As we prepared to get ready for our April General Meeting, the final Agenda and Papers are now available for review prior to the Thursday.  These include two new updated papers to help guide discussions on Climate Uncertainty and Menindee Lakes, as well as a background brief for the Water Act discussion.

We look forward to welcoming you to Sydney. Reminder, a casual breakfast will start from 7:30am prior to the meeting. 

Following last week's Member Policy discussion, a Draft Position Statement on Climate Uncertainty is available for review and feedback.  Feedback is welcome by Friday 10th April.  We intend to finalise this Position Statement at our April General Meeting. 

REMINDER - the Blue box is the text that is agreed or voted on by Members and should be the focus of feedback.  The remaining text is background and can be updated as needed with new information without Member approval. 

Following feedback and discussion, we have updated the Basin Plan snapshot document to include climate as well as, more detail on the Basin Plan 2.0 and 1.0.

Visit the Members Area to see the web version of the attached PDF.

The Productivity Commission has released the terms of reference for the tree-yearly review into National Water Reform - this inquiry is into the National Water Initiative and its progress.  The review also includes terms to look at urban water infrastructure and pricing, and thus presents an opportunity to raise concerns with bulk water infrastructure and pricing. This is a tight timeframe, with a two-step process for an initial submission and a final submission deadline, which is similar to the usual process, it will mean we will not see a draft report rather an initial summary.  The intention is this information is available to the Minister prior to the end of 2026, to help inform the legislative program for 2027.

NIC has requested a direct meeting with the inquiry team and we will let you know when.

Part 3 of our Submission to the MDBA's Basin Plan Review Discussion paper is the full list of MDBA options, our NIC response and our own options.  This is available as a stand alone document. 

The first draft of our NIC Submission to the MDBA's Basin Plan Review Discussion Paper is now available.  Attached is the one document, which includes a brief one-pager on the review. The one-pager is designed as a stand alone document for decision makers, and hence its language is tailored accordingly.  The options table is also available separately on the Members Page. 

Feedback is welcomed, and I note we haven't specifically discussed northern connectivity or Menindee yet as a Membership group which will further shape this submission (although we anticipate a separate submission for Menindee Review).  We will have a Specific Member Drop in session scheduled for this in coming weeks, to give you time to read through the submission.  The submission has been written to provide an overarching key recommendations, with a number of specific recommendations within the report - the key list is the option table in Part 3.  We aimed to have it structured to allow, local views and regional examples, to be provided. 

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