NATIONAL IRRIGATORS’ COUNCIL
Advocating for the Australian irrigated agriculture industry
We are running a bit behind schedule but attached is a brief DRAFT submission into the PC Interim Report on National Water Reform. Please review and provide comments no later than Tuesday 5pm, as the submission is over-due. Comments to Zara.
The NIC provided a submission to the Water Act Review Discussion Paper: Strong Voices, Healthy Waters.
The IGWC released its SDL compliance report for the Murray Darling Basin 2024-2025 water year.
The report presented evidence that the MDB remains within SDL and there is continuing under-use occuring around the Basin.
DCCEEW are hosting an online webinar at 10:30am AEST on 28 July 2026 - you can register
here.
The webinar will provide information to support participation in the current review of The Water Act 2007 (Cth) with the
release of a Review Discussion Paper.
This webinar will be recorded and will be available on our website following the event.
A new report has found levels of water use across the Murray-Darling Basin are fully compliant with the Basin Plan’s Sustainable Diversion
Limits (SDLs), which irrigators say shows ‘the job is done’.
“Water use across the Basin is fully compliant with the Sustainable Diversion Limits set by the Basin Plan,” said Zara Lowien, CEO of the
National Irrigators’ Council (NIC).
“It’s very clear that over-extraction is no longer the issue for the Murray-Darling Basin.”
13 July 2026, Canberra ACT: Communities in the Murray-Darling Basin are calling on the Federal Government to stop, after
SunRice attributed major changes to Australian milling sites directly to slashed water for farming under the Basin Plan, putting hundreds of
jobs at risk.
“The industry has been warning the Federal Government of this exact risk for years, and now the worst-case scenario is unfolding,” said Zara
Lowien, CEO of the National Irrigators’ Council (NIC).
[continued]
Basin officials have confirmed 14 environmental projects will be withdrawn from formal recognition under the Murray-Darling Basin Plan placing Southern Basin communities at risk of losing up to a further 355 GL of water through no fault of their own.
“The environmental outcomes from these projects cannot be achieved by ‘just adding more water’,” said CEO of the National Irrigators’
Council (NIC), Zara Lowien, “in fact, these projects are essential to actually use all the water the Government has already recovered from
farmers.Withdrawing these projects is a lose-lose situation for communities and the environment." [...]
Please see our first draft on the issue paper “Strong Voices, Healthy Waters: upholding Aboriginal and Torres Strait
Islander peoples’ water rights through the review of the Water Act 2007” where the NIC has decided to make a number of corrections and clear points of clarification needed for the Water Act Review.
Feedback on this draft submission is welcome, preferably through tracked changes or comments within the document to Christine by Wednesday,
8th July.
Today's publication of the ‘What we Heard’ Report following public consultation on the Basin Plan Review shows a clear united message: priorities have shifted, move on from “just adding water”. “After three decades of reform focused on reducing diversions to rebalance towards the environment, it’s clear that priorities are now shifting to a broader range of issues that cannot be addressed by just adding water,” said National Irrigators’ Council CEO Zara Lowien [...]
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agriculture industry.