Media Release
Knee Jerk Responses No Solution for Drought Impacts
Farmers, rural communities and the environment all suffer in a drought crisis but none will be helped by knee jerk changes to the Basin Plan, says National Irrigators’ Council CEO, Steve Whan. “Unfortunately virtually every day this drought continues, we are seeing...
Factual debate, not blame game, needed to minimise future fish kills
Avoiding the tragic impact on native fish of low flows, extreme temperatures and algal blooms in the river system requires factual discussion and careful planning – says National Irrigators' Council CEO, Steve Whan. Steve Whan said "it is always difficult...
About Us
The National Irrigators’ Council (NIC) is the voice of irrigators across Australia.
It aims to develop projects and policies to ensure the efficiency, viability and sustainability of Australian irrigated agriculture and the security and reliability of water entitlements and to promote those projects and policies with a view to having them adopted or ratified by governments, statutory authorities and other groups and organisations.
The NIC was created in 2008 to represent the interests of irrigation entitlement holders across Australia.
Policy
Our policy is determined by members and underpinned by our Guiding Principles and the objectives in our Strategic Plan. Strategic and policy documents are developed by the organisation through debate and resolution by members at the three general meetings of Council each year.
Membership
NIC currently has 27 members. Our members represent irrigation infrastructure operators and major irrigated agricultural commodity groups. Our membership structure has four categories (A, B, C and D). Members are not individual irrigators but members of their respective representative organisations. As a non-federated body, members have equal voting rights on issues.Stakeholders
Developing strong relationships with the federal government, key government agencies and parliamentary representatives across all parties on issues relevant to our members in the irrigated agriculture sector are a critical part of NIC advocacy. We also work closely with other peak bodies outside our membership.