NATIONAL IRRIGATORS’ COUNCIL
Advocating for the Australian irrigated agriculture industry
The MDBA published the Murray-Darling Basin Outlook on Thursday 27 November, looking at the future hydroclimate of the Basin.
It considers a plausible range of climate futures to the year 2050 - assuming existing management arrangements, and will be used to inform
evidence for the Basin Plan Review.
A Member Briefing note is available in the Member Area.
The Minister tabled the third independent review into the Water for Environment Special Account (WESA) which funds the 450 GL of additional water for the environment, constraints and the sustaining basin communities program.
A Member Briefing note with links is available in the Member Area.
Farmers in the Basin are calling on the Federal Government to escalate water security for agriculture as a priority, following the findings
of the Basin Outlook, published today which echoed findings from the National Climate Risk Assessment.
“All climate change scenarios will have significant risks on water security for Australian agriculture,” said NIC CEO, Zara Lowien “farmers
are adapting every day to changing climate, but can only adapt so far, water security is critical” [...]
The Independent Panel reviewing the Water for Environment Special Account (WESA) has released its third and likely final report today.
The report focuses on the funding requirements of the WESA to implement the additional 450 GL of environmental water and constraints. It found, that there is a funding shortfall of $1.3 billion for the 450 GL program and that it is uncertain if the
full target can be achieved. It could not assess financial status of constraints beyond 2026 as no estimates of total costs are available and noted the remaining funds are sufficient for the expected expenses until 2026. No assessment on the Sustaining
Basin Communities funding was undertaken as no outputs were measured, although they did highlight the need for more explicit guidelines
on what is expected to be achieved.
The National Irrigators’ Council is calling for an independent review of program outcomes, after a statutory review on the Water for the
Environment Special Account (WESA) found an additional $1.3 billion would be needed to buy an additional 450 gigalitres, beyond what is
required to achieve Sustainable Diversion Limits (SDLs) in the Murray Darling Basin.
“The report findings call into question the Government focus on just water, with a $1.3 billion blowout, and their own science saying
priorities have shifted” said NIC CEO Zara Lowien [...]
Many stakeholders have been left shocked by yesterday’s Federal Government announcement to fast track an additional 130 gigalitres of water
purchases from farmers in the Southern Murray-Darling Basin, despite evidence that the Basin management needs to move beyond “just adding
water”.
“This was a missed opportunity for Minister Watt to put politics aside and send a strong message about refocusing the Basin Plan on
outcomes, not just numbers” said NIC CEO, Zara Lowien. [...]
This week the Government's proposed Environment Protection and Biodiversity Act 2025 Reform Bills (six of) were referred to the Senate Environment and Communications Committee for review. The Minister for the Environment and Water, Murray Watt says the Australian Parliament
must make a choice - support reform that will protect our treasured natural environment and drive productivity, or keep the broken, outdated laws we have which are failing business, the environment and our community. However Senator Sarah Hanson-Young said “The
Albanese Government’s proposed environment bill will make things worse for nature and the climate. It will take environment protections backwards while fast tracking approvals for business.
Submissions are open now and close on 4 December 2025 with the Committee due to report March next year.
Following our General Meeting and recent NIC policy discussion session, we have prepared a new Members Only Area on the Basin Plan Internal Strategy, and uploaded two key communication documents for Members to utilise during conversations with the MDBA and others, on key
points and evidence regarding the review of the Basin Plan. These documents include:
1. Internal strategy information on what we are aiming to achieve and how we will get there, with detailed explanations on the key areas of
interest. These are for guidance to keep our messaging consistent and should be high-level enough that you can add your local flair or
specific area of interest.
2. External facing document to be shared amongst your networks with key findings and our key requests, as well as high-level points.
IGWC released the 2023-2024 metering report card, providing an overview of how Basin States are progressing national metering standards. The
report looks provides a snapshot of the progression towards AS4747 meters with NSW increasing their coverage of AS4747 meters, just behind
Victoria which has the highest number. The report card does highlight the areas where NSW and QLD are still using estimates for water take,
although these percentages are expected to decline with the roll-out of floodplain harvesting metering which has only just began.
It is important to note that the report card refers to productive/commercial extraction of water, and therefore does not report on
environmental water measurement.
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agriculture industry.