NATIONAL IRRIGATORS’ COUNCIL
Advocating for the Australian irrigated agriculture industry
The Murray Darling Basin Plan became Commonwealth legislation in 2012. It was enabled under the Water Act 2007. The plan outlines the management of water resources in the Murray-Darling Basin, including water allocation, environmental water management, and water quality standards.
The Murray Darling Basin Plan has been amended twice since becoming law:
The National Irrigators Council is committed to finalising the Murray Darling Basin Plan without unnecessarily burdening our industries and communities. The remaining elements of the Murray Darling Basin Plan are shared responsibility of the Australian Government with Basin jurisdictions. We endeavour to monitor their progress to keep them accountable to their promises to achieve the Murray Darling Basin Plan and its outcomes while not leaving any community behind.
Water recovery towards the Murray Darling Basin Plan Sustainable Diversion Limits and compliance with those limits, is monitored by the Murray Darling Basin Authority.
As reported in the August Sustainable Diversion Limit Water Take Report the Basin Plan Sustainable Diversion Limits are being achieved
with all water resource plan units compliant.
The progress to-date means that 1 in 3 litres of water for agriculture is now held by environmental water holders. This is a total reduction in water availability meaning 72% of average river flows are for the environment and 28% to water users.
KEY MESSAGES
DCCEEW today released the Exposure Draft of the Water Markets Intermediaries Code (the Code) and an Overview of the draft are now available for consultation. On this page you will be able to submit your feedback on the Exposure Draft. The consultation will be open until 11.59pm on Sunday 6 April 2025. The Exposure Draft incorporates feedback from the Policy Position Paper consultation in November-December 2024.
DCCEEW today released their Final policy position paper on the water market intermediaries trust accounting and code exemptions, the final
position to inform the future exposure regulations.
We will review this with interest given the concerns raised regarding the likely impacts and expectations on some intermediaries.
Irrigators call out Minister Plibersek’s decision to sign off on purchasing another 100 GL of water in the southern Basin with questionable
procurement processes and deliberately narrow evidence to support the decision.
“The advice before the Minister to inform the decision is flawed,” said Zara Lowien, CEO of National Irrigators’ Council. [...]
The release of the Auditor General’s report of the Federal Government’s water buybacks finds the Government implemented a well-paved road
of effective process but struggled to find the link between the buyback program and the intended policy objectives for the Murray Darling
Basin Plan.
“Many will glance at the key findings of effective process and give the Government a pat on the back, but the devil is in the detail when
the report goes on to question the link between the buyback program and the intended policy objectives for the environment” said National
Irrigators’ Council CEO, Ms Lowien [...]
Minister Plibersek tabled the Australia Audit Office's review of the 2023 Strategic Purchases for Bridging the Gap, which you may recall the Inspector General recently found flaws in governance and managing conflicts.
The report identified steps were taken to address earlier deficiencies and that processes stacked up. What was interesting to read in
the detail were questions and recommendations about the purpose of these purchases towards the overall policy outcomes, which you will hear
more from NIC about this area
NIC today lodged their submission to DCCEEW on the Water Market reform - Intermediaries Code and Statutory Trust Account Policy Position paper with an overarching concern that the regulatory burden of this reform, particularly given its scale and pace. We are also concerned that the reform is going too far, and is becoming disproportionate to the problem at hand, and the size and extent of water markets. While market integrity, transparency and good governance are important – there is enormous risk of not striking the right balance for a proportionate policy response […]
National Irrigators’ Council (NIC) expressed its sincere gratitude to Sir Angus Houston, who has led the MDBA since 2020. Under Sir Angus'
leadership, significant progress has been made in fostering better relationships with communities across the Basin, prioritising
transparency, and restoring trust in the management of the Murray-Darling Basin Plan.
"Sir Angus Houston's dedication to listening to Basin communities and his focus on repairing relationships and trust have been crucial
during a period of significant uncertainty and challenge," said Zara Lowien, CEO of NIC.[...]
The Inspector General this week released their 2022-2023 Murray Darling Basin
Compliance Report. The
report states that "this compliance performance report provides a sample of common compliance activities metrics for each Basin State
which will be incorporated into progressively broader reporting under a Basin-wide compliance performance reporting scheme. It is also
anticipated that future reporting on compliance activities will be at the water resource plan level."
The report provides an overview of the different approaches and outcomes to compliance in each of the Basin States. NSW reported licence
holder numbers not metered percentage (with a target of 95% underway), SA reported 98.2% of take was metered, Queensland report 74% of take was metered, in Victoria 98% was metered (and 76% telemetered), no details for ACT. Victoria has the largest number of statutory officers, despite have the highest percentage of telemetered meters. Victoria also had the highest number of
investigations open and closed and warnings, whereas SA had the highest number and greatest value of fines.
The announcement of $160 million for Southern NSW communities targeted by Government water buybacks for an additional 450 GL, is welcomed by the National Irrigators’ Council (NIC) but they warn, it will not make up for the damage. “Removing water from agriculture has enormous flow-on impacts throughout communities, which cannot simply be patched up with one-off handouts,” said NIC CEO, Zara Lowien. [...]
Check out our final submission into the Inspector General of Water Compliance Inquiry into the Northern Basin Toolkit.
The Toolkit was a multi-pronged solution developed through the Northern Basin Review to recommit government to existing requirements
(Bridging the Gap requirements), fund a series of investments over-and-above the Murray Darling Basin Plan assumptions and existing levers of just adding water, enhance environmental outcomes and minimise socio-economic impacts. The Toolkit was the Government's initial
investment into complementary measures.
As with many of the Murray Darling Basin Plan elements, it has lacked transparency and accountability, which should be improved in future
program development. The Toolkit highlights a number of great outcomes when investment is provided to optimising environmental water delivery and environmental outcomes.
Take a look at our final submission on both the:
The Australian Government is hosting a webinar to provide an update on our progress in implementing the Basin Plan.
The online public webinar will be held on Wednesday 11 December 2024 at 12:00pm (AEDT). The
webinar will run for 60 minutes.
The panel will include representatives from the Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water.
Submit your questions in advance
We welcome your questions and encourage you to submit them in advance. Please email your questions to water.engagement@dcceew.gov.au.
Irrigators’ have called out Minister Plibersek’s announcement of having ‘1000 willing sellers towards’ the Commonwealth’s tender to buy
water for the Murray-Darling Basin Plan, as a political stunt on the day of Senate Estimates.
“The last time Minister Plibersek announced a buyback tender round had been over-subscribed, the Government later rejected 72% of the
offers contracting only a small proportion of the reported offers (26 GL out of 90 GL), mostly due to value for money concerns,” said Zara
Lowien, CEO of the National Irrigators’ Council. [...]
Following ongoing discussions with DCCEEW about accountability and transparency of progress on the Murray Darling Basin Plan, our attention was drawn to this new resource to track the progress. Whilst it doesn't go all the way with providing the much-needed transparency, it does provide a visual examples of the progress, and remaining effort. Its worth a look.
Today, Federal Senate Estimates for the Environment and Communications portfolio held their hearings on
matters relating to the Murray Darling Basin Plan, water market reforms and the National Water Agreement renewal. The hearings are available
via the Australian Parliament YouTube channel.
Some key outcomes from today's discussion confirmed that an updated version of the National Water Agreement is due "soon" and that
many of the stakeholder concerns, including those from the Productivity Commission were being addressed. The Department indicated a
living entity is not a legal entity and that there is no intention for Free, Informed and Prior Consent, to provide authority over water
decisions.
Questioning regarding buybacks revealed that 26GL out of the 90GL of 'overwhelming offers' last year for Bridging the Gap were contracted
with 72% rejected due to value for money concerns.
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