NATIONAL IRRIGATORS’ COUNCIL
Advocating for the Australian irrigated agriculture industry
We're taking a short break to refuel and get ready for 2026.
The NIC Office will be closed from Monday, 22nd December 2025 until Monday 5th January 2026.
On the 12th December, a national Water Minister's meeting and Murray Darling Basin Water Minister's meeting were held - these are known as MinCo meetings.
The national meeting, discussed the preparation and next steps of a renewed National Water Initiative and progress on water efficiency standards, as well as, risks pertaining to increased demands on water including water for data centres (in our view any new demands for
water should be found from new sources, or through existing markets). The communique is available here.
The MDB meeting, discussed progress on the Basin Plan and concerns regarding SDLAM projects. There was no direction mention of constraints,
however some discussion on a strategic approach to SDLAM projects. The communiqué is available here.
On 9 December 2025, DCCEEW held a webinar about progress on implementing the Basin Plan.
If you missed it, you can now see the recording / transcript on their website.
NIC report reviewed the Federal Government’s purchases and found most have low environmental utility and cannot directly contribute to today’s environmental priorities in the Basin – despite costing taxpayers billions.“These additional water buybacks go beyond what was required to ‘bridge the gap’ to get Sustainable Diversion Limits in place for the Basin Plan,” said NIC CEO Zara Lowien “most of this additional water will not be able to be used as intended and unlikely to contribute to desired environmental outcomes”. [...]
There have been several concerns raised regarding the Federal Government’s decision to purchase additional water from farmers that go beyond
the water recovery required to ‘bridge the gap’ to reduce water usage to Sustainable Diversion Limits (SDLs), in the Murray-Darling Basin
Plan. The concerns relate to the effectiveness or need for additional water acquisition, with questions on how the Government’s actions are
contributing to policy outcomes, meeting value for taxpayers’ money, and consider the growing evidence that signals alternatives approach to
‘just adding water’ are needed to enhance environmental outcomes around the Basin.
This Report by NIC, provides a preliminary assessment of the Federal Government purchases of additional water under “the 450 GL” program of
the Plan. [...]
The amount of water that can be used in the Southern Murray-Darling Basin may need to drop by a further 255 to 355 gigalitres (GL) after
2026, as States remain behind on vital environmental projects, a new report finds
“Water use has drastically declined since the Basin Plan,” said NIC CEO, Zara Lowien “with one in three litres of irrigation water, now out
of production and new Sustainable Diversion Limits (SDLs) set by the Basin Plan in force". [...]
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.
This update relates to persons or classes of people required to report water market information under the Australian Government water market
regulation - this can be IIOs and water intermediaries.
DCCEEW are seeking feedback on the Exposure Drafts for the proposed Water Amendment (Water Markets Information) Regulations 2026
(Regulations) and the Water Market Data Standards. These form the final pieces of the water market reform roadmap and are due for
implementation in 2026.
Exposure drafts and a survey for feedback are provided on the webpage.
On Monday 22nd September Matt Coulton from Ricardo provided Members a presentation on Climate Risks and Water Policy implications in the
MDB. The presentation slides are attached for your information.
A recording of the first half of the presentation is temporarily available here
via teams. The second part of the presentation was discussion and engagement with Matt which was not recorded to encourage open
discussion.
The NIC Board needs your help - they are seeking feedback from Members regarding the 2026 Meeting schedule. The NIC Board is considering two options for our annual meeting schedule. We want to ensure maximum value from meeting face to face for discussions and networking, and balance this with resourcing of NIC and Members to travel. Please complete via this survey (takes 3 mins) prior to Wednesday 10th October!!
NIC provided a submission into Feeding Australian: A national food security discussion paper. We stated "A national food security strategy must consider Australia’s food sovereignty as well as, our role in the future food security needs of our trading partners; to achieve this, a national water security strategy for agriculture will be needed to underpin it. Water is a critical input into agricultural production, and the objectives of this strategy cannot be achieved in the absence of agricultural water security". We provided six recommendations for consideration in developing the national strategy.
NIC has completed our own internal review into the Murray Darling Basin Plan, which is a series of papers addressing the key themes of
the 2024 Early Insights paper using the recently published “Triple Crown of Water Reform Framework” to highlight possible next
steps for the Basin Plan. We hope to help forge a future pathway that embraces the paradigm shift needed for the Basin that is more
about a 'plan of management' than the current ‘water recovery plan’ focus. The review addresses; regulatory design, sustainable water limits, climate change, environment, agriculture and community and contemporary issues.
We encourage stakeholders to reach out to discuss these papers, the evidence, our findings and recommendations.
A Draft Submission into the National Food Security Strategy Discussion Paper is available for review. Please send any feedback via
tracked changes if possible through to Christine or Zara. This is due Wednesday, 24th September.
The discussion paper is available via DAFF here.
Today's release of the National Climate Risk Assessment and National Adaptation Plan exposes the risks to Australia’s agriculture sector from climate change, particularly water security for irrigation to grow food and fibre. “Climate change poses a very real risk to irrigated agriculture,” said NIC CEO, Zara Lowien. [...]
Irrigation Australia Limited's Spring Journal features our CEO, Zara Lowien's comments on the 2025 Basin Plan Evaluation (on page 32-35) indicating there were plenty of first the MDBA's 'game changing' 2025 evaluation but what does it mean for the irrigation industry. Zara highlighted the opportunity before Minister Watt has to work collaboratively with communities and industry on a much-needed reset, that looks to refocus the Basin Plan on outcomes rather than numbers.
Australian Farm Institute, Executive Director Katie McRobert says "Much of Australia’s agricultural policy is caught in a loop. When a crisis erupts – be it drought, market disruption, or community outrage – political and media attention surges. Decisions are demanded, headlines 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 Christine Freak and Zara Lowien examines the long and often reactive trajectory of water policy reform in the Murray–Darling Basin (MDB)...[They] offer offer an original contribution to this challenge in the form of the Triple Crown of Water Reform Framework, which conceptualises reform as a three-pronged effort: water-sharing (Flows), watermanagement (Functions), and integrated resource initiatives (Further)."
Director nominations for the National Irrigators' Council board are due by 10th September 2025.
There are three positions vacant this Annual General Meeting information, with one director not considering re-election.
Please visit the Meeting Documentation - Annual General Meeting page for more information.
NIC and our local Murrumbidgee region Members, are helping coordinate the study tour component of the MDA's 81st Conference which is in Griffith, NSW this year. The study tour will be on 30th September via a bus tour and includes:
- Murrumbidgee Irrigation Ltd, including their control room and looking at their recent efficiency projects including urban channels.
- One Basin CRC hub
- One of the local fish farms
- Sunrice in Leeton
The tour include lunch at Whitton Malthouse.
Tickets for the tour are to be book at the 'Member Price' via the MDA conference website.
NIC is hosting a Member Networking dinner with guest speaker Matt Linegar from the Australian Rural Leadership Foundation on 30th September at Belvedere Restaurant, Griffith. This event is a great opportunity to hear Matt's leadership story, which no doubt will include a few laughs, and consider industry's next steps as we embark on the review of the Murray Darling Basin Plan. Tickets for this event are via the event link using Try Booking - an Italian feast has been organised to celebrate the evening. Drinks are at your own cost.
On 1st October, Day 1 speakers include The Hon. Murray Watt, Minister for Water and Environment, Troy Grant the Inspector General Water
Compliance, Dr Simon Banks, the Commonwealth Environmental Water Holder and there is a panel session on Basin Governance. These speakers and
others provide a foundation to inform discussions at NIC General Meeting on Thursday, 2nd October. The Conference also provides an
opportunity to Members to network with Murray Darling Association Members.
We encourage consideration of attending, however it is up to Members. Tickets must be purchased from the MDA website
using the Member rate for Day 1.
On 1st October, the National Irrigators' Council is holding its Annual General Meeting from 3pm at the Yoogali Club Griffith. Please
use to link to RSVP.
This event is after the Day 1 Conference proceedings.
NIC General Meeting Administration will occur thereafter until 5pm.
On the evening of 1st October from 6:30pm - celebrate and socialise at the Piccolo Family Farm, situated in the heart of Griffith.
Enjoy the ambience and view of Griffith and it’s surrounds while you network over local wines and drinks.
Dine with the MDA and enjoy an incredible, seasonally prepared 3-course meal.
Tickets purchased via the MDA webstie using the 'Member Price'.
On 2nd October, the National Irrigators' Council will be holding their Member General Meeting at the Yoogali Club, Griffith. Proposed time
is 8:30am - 2pm to allow time to catch flights or travel home.
Agenda to be confirmed - discussions on what we heard from the conference, Climate and Risk and Succession planning and industry development
are being planned.
Please RSVP using the link.
A new report has found the Murray-Darling Basin is in full compliance with the new Sustainable Diversion Limits, consistent with previous
findings and the recent 2025 Evaluation that the Basin has seen an environmental turnaround.
“The report confirms Sustainable Diversion Limits are being enforced and in fact, water diversions are well under these limits,” said
National Irrigators’ Council CEO, Zara Lowien.
“Getting water use below these Sustainable Diversion Limits was a huge feat, and it means 1 in 3 litres of irrigation water are now out of
production and remain in rivers.”
The Australian Government committed $3.5 million over 2 years in the 2025–26 Budget to develop the Feeding Australia: National Food Security
Strategy. This was part of an election commitment from the Federal Government, backed by NIC and NFF.
The Government has now published a discussion paper for feedback, with submissions closing on 24 September 2025.
NIC will be providing a submission, and we encourage our memebrs to do the same. We will share our draft submission with you shortly.
The IGWC has published the Sustainable Diversion Limit Compliance Report for 2023-24, while the MDBA has published their Registers of Take.
The IGWC report found "All 78 SDL resource units assessed for the 2023–2024 water accounting year were found to be compliant. Those water resource areas without an accredited WRP (for the full water year), were also seperately assessed as compliant. Our analysis shows
water usage is actually 12% below the SDL.
IGWC Report: https://www.igwc.gov.au/sites/default/files/documents/2025-08/sustainable-diversion-limit-compliance-report-2023-2024.pdf
MDBA Registers of Take: 2023-24
Sustainable Diversion Limit Accounts
The National Irrigators’ Council shares the concerns of stakeholders regarding the halting of licenced environmental water delivery in NSW but emphasises this is a dispute between the State Government and the Commonwealth Environmental Water holder, not irrigators.
We have just put in our submission for the third Water for Environment Special Account (WESA) review - take a look.
Our key recommendation: "The Independent Panel take a broad view to examine the policy settings and decision-making on the use of
WESA funds to achieve enhanced environmental outcomes with consideration of socio-economic impact - to ensure WESA can be used
transparently to target priority environmental investments. We encourage you to explore the option to amend the WESA to ensure it can be
used transparently to target priority environmental investments such as community-supported constraints measures and investment in non-flow
complementary measures as evidence within the 2025 Basin Plan Evaluation and Sustainable Rivers Audit."
Thank you to our members who have contributed to this piece of work, and taking the time to provide feedback.
OneBasin CRC and the Australian Water School hosted on webinar on "the impact of climate change on crop irrigation requirements across
the Murray-Darling Basin".
We haven't had a chance to watch it yet, but you can view the recording online.
Here's the outline:
Irrigated farming in the Murray–Darling Basin faces increasing challenges due to a warmer and drier climate. With water supply
decreasing and irrigation demand rising, farmers need better insights into future water needs to sustain their crops and investments.
Understanding these changes is crucial for medium to long-term planning and for making informed decisions about crop choices and water
sourcing.
Join a panel of experts who are modelling the future irrigation needs of key crops in the Murray–Darling Basin under various climate change
scenarios via a One Basin CRC funded-project.
Join our panellists as they explore:
- Using existing climate, soil, and crop data to calculate potential changes in irrigation demand;
- How crop water requirements might change over the mid to long-term; and
- Initiatives to help farmers and irrigation suppliers plan for a future with higher temperatures and less water.
The 2025 Ricardo Water Markets Report was published this week. The report has really useful data on water markets, including on Cth water
buybacks. Worth a look!
Some quick facts:
If there's one video those working in water must watch this year, it's this - Professor Forest Reinhardt from Harvard Business School talking to Andrew McConville at this years River Reflections Conference on water property rights (watch from 45 minutes
into Day 1).
Let us know your favourite quotes!
One of our favourites (1hr 18mins in) - in response to a question on what a future Basin Plan should look like: "If the subsequent
versions of the Basin Plan, can make water more and more like a normal commodity... just as if you own a piece of land... I think
that the more you can make water rights look like normal property rights, the more effective the system will be. I come from a country
where we can't even get to the starting line of that kind of thing."
The NIC team produced a quick overview of the MDBA's 2025 Basin Plan Evaluation and Sustainable Rivers Audit, saying (published 24 July, here) the key findings were:
Today’s publication of the Murray Darling Basin Authority’s (MDBA) 2025 Basin Plan Evaluation and Sustainable Rivers Audit has found the health of the Basin has improved, advising that “water for the environment is essential, but on its own is likely not sufficient” [MDBA Overview]... The National Irrigators’ Council has described many parts of the Evaluation as refreshing and a wakeup call needed to shape thinking in the Basin going forward and is calling for more quick thinking on how to determine and prioritise a package of strategic environmental investments in these complementary (non-flow) measures to inform next steps on the Basin Plan, given the Evaluation found this as a missing piece of the current Plan puzzle. [...]
Basin communities fear socio-economic impact assessments soon to be released by the Murray-Darling Basin Authority (MDBA) will water down the true impact, overlooking community and industry-level data, in their Basin-scale assessment. “Basin Plan legislation requires 5-yeraly Evaluations, but at a Basin-scale”, said Zara Lowien, National Irrigators’ Council (NIC) CEO, “we know the most severe impacts are felt at a local community level, and within specific industries, but these impacts get smoothed out when the assessment zooms to the Basin-scale.” [...]
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NIC Members agreed to a specific Position Statement on the reliability of water access entitlements to provide a clear message to Governments on how decisions impact water property rights, as represented and agreed in the National Water Initiative. This position statement was prepared in conjunction with our guiding principles. Approved 17 July 2025. |
NIC Members agreed to amend and update our Aboriginal Water Position Statement, and agreed to the following Position Statement titled 'enabling Cultural objectives in water management'.
This position statement was prepared in conjunction with our Murray-Darling Basin Position Statement and our Positon Statement on
reliability of water entitlements and our guiding principles.
Approved 17 July 2025.
On 26 June, members would have received an email with notice of two Special Resolutions for the upcoming General Meeting on 17th July
2025.
These include:
(a) A renewed Position Statement, retitled ‘Enabling Cultural objectives in water management’; and
(b) A new Position Statement on the Reliability of Water Entitlements.
We remind members that the General Meeting is for voting purposes only (on the blue box text), and no amendments can be made, now this
notice of special resolution has been issued. We thank those who have been involved in the design and review of these proposed policy
position statements.
We are preparing for the publication of the 2025 MDBP Evaluation, anticipated for mid-late July.
Given we may have some problematic socio-economic findings ('no measurable impact'), we are encouraging members to start preparing data. The
Evaluation is done at a Basin-scale, which means community and industry level impacts are smoothed over. This means, it will be a critical
time for us to have data to put on the table to stop an inaccurate or non-representative narrative forming.
We will be sending further information around shortly, including with key messages, to help us all get prepared.
In the meantime, some examples of the types of data we encourage you to start pulling together (and share with us), includes:
The Federal Government announced their invitation to Tenderers who hold eligible groundwater rights in the Queensland (Qld)
Condamine-Balonne catchment to submit a tender, for the sale of those water rights (either whole or in part), to the Australian Government
under Bridging the Gap. This is for up to 3.2 GL/y (long-term diversion limit equivalence; LTDLE) of groundwater comprising:
• 0.25 GL/y from the Qld Upper Condamine Alluvium (Central Condamine Alluvium); and
• 2.95 GL/y from the Qld Upper Condamine Alluvium (Tributaries).
A draft of our Consultation Expectations Guideline is now available for member feedback.
From our drop-in discussions, it was suggested that this forms a guideline to explain what we mean by good consultation, rather than a
'policy position' as such - but we want to hear from you on that!
You will see that this includes some key principles of our expectations, a scorecard to review consultations (linked to the principles), and
our commitments when engaging.
We intend to do a test of this scorecard, to develop some case studies of applying it in practice - stay tuned, and we will publish an updated version shortly (shared via our policy updates page in the members area).
This week, Dairy Australia released the first of its kind report using new independent, evidence-based, modelling has found continued
water buybacks under the Murray-Darling Basin Plan (MDBP) pose a severe, disproportionate, and avoidable risk to the entire dairy supply
chain and the region communities they sustain.
The results are clear and alarming: water buybacks, as currently proposed, are not just a policy tool – they threaten the viability of an
entire industry. Under two plausible buyback scenarios - the recovery of 302GL and 683GL - the analysis shows:
* reduced water availability
* significant increases in water prices
* sharp declines in farmgate milk production
* farm viability risks
* heightened risk of dairy processor closures, and
* community and supply chain impact.
Seeking member feedback on our draft position statement on Enabling Cultural Objectives in Water Management.
This forms part of our Policy Platform Update, and was developed following member discussion at our drop-ins - see page on members areas for more information, and to see all current drafts as they are updated.
Reminder - this is now the time to have your say in the design and development of our policy positions, we cannot make changes on voting day
at the General Meeting.
Seeking member feedback on our draft position statement on reliability of water entitlements.
This forms part of our Policy Platform Update, and was developed following member discussion at our drop-ins - see page on members areas for more information.
Reminder - this is now the time to have your say in the design and development of our policy positions, we cannot make changes on voting day
at the General Meeting.
Draft submission on the MDBA Early Insights Paper now available for member review.
This forms part of our bigger work program on preparing for the Basin Plan Review. Please let us know your feedback.
Note: Draft Submission is not for further distribution outside your organisation at this stage until finalised (as we are awaiting
publication of some source articles, such as on the framework, which is subject to copyright/licensing constraints until published).
“Holding Ground in Uncertainty: Insights for Australian Agriculture in 2050” is a deep and wide-ranging exploration of the
futures that might await our sector—and the strategic choices we can make today to shape them.
This expanded edition includes 19 contributions from leading researchers and practitioners, exploring themes such as:
CISRO released their first-ever national stocktake of our $800 billion food system, which feeds around 100 million people – including 27 million Australians – with food produced by 100,000 farmers. The report maps a number of key challenges in the food system and seeks to calculate hidden costs. The report identified three key steps to guide a systems-based approach for transformation:
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