[
	{
		"post_id": "974", 
		"post_category_id": "416", 
		"post_title": "New Report - NIC's 2nd Review of Federal Government \"450GL\" Water Purchases", 
		"post_content_short": "The NIC continues to monitor the Federal Government’s implementation of the additional Held Environmental Water (HEW) program under the Murray-Darling Basin Plan and has released a second report, following our December 2025 analysis.&nbsp;\n<br \/><br \/>\n\tThe 450 GL program has fundamentally changed since it was first conceived. The original budget has been exhausted, expected costs have\n\tescalated significantly, the scope of the program has expanded, and new environmental evidence has emerged. Despite these material changes,\n\tthere has been no transparent reassessment of whether continued expenditure represents the most effective, efficient and economical\n\tinvestment to achieve environmental outcomes and deliver benefits to the Australian economy [...]\n", 
		"post_icon": "https:\/\/www.irrigators.org.au\/media\/website_posts\/974\/2nd-HEW-REVIEW.png", 
		"post_content_type": "page", 
		"post_content_url": "https:\/\/www.irrigators.org.au\/policy\/murray-darling-basin-plan\/review-of-additional-hew\/", 
		"post_date": "2026-06-17 23:24:00"
	}, 
	{
		"post_id": "924", 
		"post_category_id": "405", 
		"post_title": "Analysis finds Governments additional water buyback spree is flawed", 
		"post_content_short": "&nbsp;NIC report reviewed the Federal Government’s purchases and found most have low environmental utility and cannot directly contribute to\n\ttoday’s environmental priorities in the Basin – despite costing taxpayers billions.“These additional water buybacks go beyond what was\n\trequired to ‘bridge the gap’ to get Sustainable Diversion Limits in place for the Basin Plan,” said NIC CEO Zara Lowien “most of this\n\tadditional water will not be able to be used as intended and unlikely to contribute to desired environmental outcomes”. [...]\n", 
		"post_icon": "https:\/\/www.irrigators.org.au\/media\/website_posts\/924\/Media-Release.png", 
		"post_content_type": "page", 
		"post_content_url": "https:\/\/www.irrigators.org.au\/news\/media-releases\/analysis-finds-governments-additional-water-buyback-spree-is-flawed\/", 
		"post_date": "2025-12-11 18:20:00"
	}, 
	{
		"post_id": "923", 
		"post_category_id": "417", 
		"post_title": "New NIC Report on 450 GL additional environmental program", 
		"post_content_short": "There have been several concerns raised regarding the Federal Government’s decision to purchase additional water from farmers that go beyond\n\tthe water recovery required to ‘bridge the gap’ to reduce water usage to Sustainable Diversion Limits (SDLs), in the Murray-Darling Basin\n\tPlan. The concerns relate to the effectiveness or need for additional water acquisition, with questions on how the Government’s actions are\n\tcontributing to policy outcomes, meeting value for taxpayers’ money, and consider the growing evidence that signals alternatives approach to\n\t‘just adding water’ are needed to enhance environmental outcomes around the Basin.\n\n<br \/><br \/>\n\tThis Report by NIC, provides a preliminary assessment of the Federal Government purchases of additional water under “the 450 GL” program of\n\tthe Plan. [...]\n", 
		"post_icon": "https:\/\/www.irrigators.org.au\/media\/website_posts\/923\/450-Report-ICON.png", 
		"post_content_type": "page", 
		"post_content_url": "https:\/\/www.irrigators.org.au\/policy\/murray-darling-basin-plan\/review-of-additional-hew\/", 
		"post_date": "2025-12-11 18:11:00"
	}, 
	{
		"post_id": "908", 
		"post_category_id": "416", 
		"post_title": "Moving Forwards: Our Review into the Murray Darling Basin Plan", 
		"post_content_short": "NIC has completed our own internal review into the Murray Darling Basin Plan,&nbsp;which is a series of papers addressing the key themes of\n\tthe 2024 Early Insights paper using the&nbsp;recently published “<em>Triple Crown of Water Reform Framework”<\/em> to highlight possible next\n\tsteps for the Basin Plan. &nbsp;We hope to help forge a future pathway that embraces the paradigm shift needed for the Basin that is more\n\tabout a 'plan of management' than the current ‘water recovery plan’ focus. &nbsp;The review addresses; regulatory design, sustainable water limits, climate change, environment, agriculture and community and contemporary issues.&nbsp; &nbsp;<br \/>\n\tWe encourage stakeholders to reach out to discuss these papers, the evidence, our findings and recommendations.&nbsp;", 
		"post_icon": "https:\/\/www.irrigators.org.au\/media\/website_posts\/908\/Picture2.png", 
		"post_content_type": "page", 
		"post_content_url": "https:\/\/www.irrigators.org.au\/policy\/murray-darling-basin-plan\/2026-basin-plan-review\/moving-forward-our-review-of-the-murray-darling-basin-plan\/", 
		"post_date": "2025-09-25 14:00:00"
	}, 
	{
		"post_id": "904", 
		"post_category_id": "417", 
		"post_title": "Breaking the Hydro-illogical cycle", 
		"post_content_short": "Australian Farm Institute, Executive Director Katie McRobert says &quot;Much of Australia’s agricultural policy is caught in a loop. When a\ncrisis erupts – be it drought, market disruption, or community outrage – political and media attention surges. Decisions are demanded,\nheadlines written, levers pulled. But as the immediate threat subsides, so too does the will to implement lasting solutions...This edition of the Farm Policy Journal explores that cycle – and asks what we can do to break it. ....The opening article by <strong>Christine Freak and\nZara Lowien<\/strong> examines the long and often reactive trajectory of water policy reform in the Murray–Darling Basin (MDB)...[They] offer offer an original\ncontribution to this challenge in the form of the Triple Crown of Water Reform Framework, which conceptualises reform as a three-pronged\neffort: water-sharing (Flows), watermanagement (Functions), and integrated resource initiatives (Further).&quot;", 
		"post_icon": "https:\/\/www.irrigators.org.au\/media\/website_posts\/904\/Member-new-resource.png", 
		"post_content_type": "url", 
		"post_content_url": "https:\/\/www.farminstitute.org.au\/product\/vol-22-no-2-2025-breaking-the-hydro-illogical-cycle\/", 
		"post_date": "2025-09-08 14:00:00"
	}
]