NATIONAL IRRIGATORS’ COUNCIL

MEDIA RELEASES

Advocating for the Australian irrigated agriculture industry

Following a quick presentation from the PC and our Member Policy Discussion yesterday, please see the first draft of NIC's Submission into the Productivity Commissions Inquiry into National Water Reform.  This is due to be lodged tomorrow, however given the timeframes we can hold off until Monday for feedback and lodge Monday evening. 

We hope that little bit more time allows you time for feedback and review.  Please reach out for a word document if you want to provide tracked changes. 

Following feedback from Members and the discussion at the Member Policy Session yesterday, please see an updated version of the NIC Menindee Submission attached. This is due to be lodged tomorrow, so please review for final checks. 

Changes included adding clear statements on boundaries on what the vision for the Lakes must recognise, as well as including the final agreed principles as recommendations.  We included reference to the shepherding trial and clarity around the exiting multi jurisdictional arrangements now within the Water Act.

The draft NIC Submission for the Menindee Lakes Review is now available for member feedback. You will find the draft submission on our members area > policy & strategy > Menindee Lakes.

We will discuss the draft submission at next weeks Drop-In, which is an opportunity to provide feedback. 

Note: NIC received an extension to May 8th. 

Thank you to all our Members who have provided input prior to and during the 12-weeks of consultation.

Our submission has now been lodged. 

NIC Media Release: Now Is The Time For Stability - Irrigators Submit To Basin Plan Review

23 April 2026, Sydney, NSW: The National Irrigators’ Council (NIC) met in Sydney today to finalise a response to the Murray-Darling Basin Plan Review, issuing a sneak peek.

“The balance has been struck when it comes to sharing water, with three-decades of reforms shrinking the share for farmers by one-third,” said NIC CEO, Zara Lowien.

“The Government’s own science says there’s no need to further reduce water from farming, showing 92% of environmental indicators across the Basin’s rivers would not change.”

As we prepared to get ready for our April General Meeting, the final Agenda and Papers are now available for review prior to the Thursday.  These include two new updated papers to help guide discussions on Climate Uncertainty and Menindee Lakes, as well as a background brief for the Water Act discussion.

We look forward to welcoming you to Sydney. Reminder, a casual breakfast will start from 7:30am prior to the meeting. 

A new podcast by The Rural Psychologist explores the question of how government decisions can effect the mental health and wellbeing of whole rural communities.  In this episode NIC CEO Zara Lowien, shares her in-sights and lived experience, explaining how government decisions in water can flow through a community, the benefits and impacts and why stability is needed to provide some certainty moving forward, in these increasingly uncertain times.  

Following last week's Member Policy discussion, a Draft Position Statement on Climate Uncertainty is available for review and feedback.  Feedback is welcome by Friday 10th April.  We intend to finalise this Position Statement at our April General Meeting. 

REMINDER - the Blue box is the text that is agreed or voted on by Members and should be the focus of feedback.  The remaining text is background and can be updated as needed with new information without Member approval. 

Following feedback and discussion, we have updated the Basin Plan snapshot document to include climate as well as, more detail on the Basin Plan 2.0 and 1.0.

Visit the Members Area to see the web version of the attached PDF.

The Productivity Commission has released the terms of reference for the tree-yearly review into National Water Reform - this inquiry is into the National Water Initiative and its progress.  The review also includes terms to look at urban water infrastructure and pricing, and thus presents an opportunity to raise concerns with bulk water infrastructure and pricing. This is a tight timeframe, with a two-step process for an initial submission and a final submission deadline, which is similar to the usual process, it will mean we will not see a draft report rather an initial summary.  The intention is this information is available to the Minister prior to the end of 2026, to help inform the legislative program for 2027.

NIC has requested a direct meeting with the inquiry team and we will let you know when.

Part 3 of our Submission to the MDBA's Basin Plan Review Discussion paper is the full list of MDBA options, our NIC response and our own options.  This is available as a stand alone document. 

The first draft of our NIC Submission to the MDBA's Basin Plan Review Discussion Paper is now available.  Attached is the one document, which includes a brief one-pager on the review. The one-pager is designed as a stand alone document for decision makers, and hence its language is tailored accordingly.  The options table is also available separately on the Members Page. 

Feedback is welcomed, and I note we haven't specifically discussed northern connectivity or Menindee yet as a Membership group which will further shape this submission (although we anticipate a separate submission for Menindee Review).  We will have a Specific Member Drop in session scheduled for this in coming weeks, to give you time to read through the submission.  The submission has been written to provide an overarching key recommendations, with a number of specific recommendations within the report - the key list is the option table in Part 3.  We aimed to have it structured to allow, local views and regional examples, to be provided. 

The NIC team have uploaded and embedded a "live document" to help inform our submission development.  This includes overview of issues, SDL assessment and technical issues, options analysis.

The approach aims to be transparent with the key issues for the BP Review, proposed solutions and actions. The document will be updated as we progress through our analysis adn thinking.  

The MDBA options from the discussion paper, are also presented with draft comments outlining our potential responses for the submission.  In the options tab, we have also included previously recommended NIC positions for reference. 

This week, the statutory review of the Water Act 2007 (Cth) commenced. You can read the Terms of Reference and an Introductory Paper on the DCCEEW website. Consultation is now underway until July. We will discuss more at our next member drop-in session. 

Following the Member policy discussion on 25 February, please see the slides from this meeting. Key discussion points were reaffirming our positions, providing insights into our work program including our journal article on evidence to priorisation for the Basin Plan next steps a follow on from our triple crown framework, as well as our engagement and communications planing -internal and external. 

The NIC provided a written, public submission into the Review into the Inspector General Water Compliance saying: "Reviewing how the role is functioning towards these key principles is paramount as the new role matures over time, to ensure that these principles are being met, but also that this is occurring in an effective, efficient, fit-for-purpose and proportional manner. Nothing in this submission is to question or belittle the importance of these principles – rather – to examine how they can be most effectively and efficiently served."

A working draft of our proposed submission to the Independent Review of the Inspector General of Water Compliance, is available here. During this weeks Policy Discussion, feedback was received but not yet fully incorporated.  This is at the end of the submission and will be incorporated next week. 

Please review the working draft and provide any feedback to Christine by the end of next week, a further draft will then be circulated prior to finalising for submission on 25 February 2026.

NIC team have prepared an updated briefing note for Members on the MDBA Discussion Paper and provided some guidance on key areas to question from the MDBA during consultation roundtables next week.
Consideration of additional messages is underway, pending feedback following the consultation sessions. 

The powerpoint slides from the 11 February NIC Member Policy Discussion on the Review of the Inspector General of Water Compliance role and the initial analysis of the Basin Plan Review Discussion paper are available here.

As part of Basin Plan Review communication and information sharing, our first of our weekly Q&A sessions were held today.  These session are held every Tuesday at 1pm. See attached the slides.

Question and themes asked, will be generated into the live issues list and discussed in Policy Sessions, as scheduled every second Wednesday. 

The MDBA has been working with River Murray governments to collate and prepare background information on the historical and current operation and management arrangements for Menindee Lakes and the associated challenges and opportunities in operating and managing the Menindee Lakes into the future.  A technical review and issues paper have been released for information to inform the Basin Plan Review. 

Legalwise is again holding their annual Water Law Symposium in Sydney.
As water law continues to evolve in response to environmental challenges, policy reform and heightened regulatory scrutiny, secure expert guidance on key legal and strategic issues shaping Australia’s water governance framework. You will gain insights into the lessons of the past decade in water reform, the intersection of Indigenous rights and governance, and the design of the Basin Plan Review. 

A first look at the Murray Darling Basin Authority’s Basin Plan Review discussion paper, reveals again that more is needed than “just adding water” to improve the environments of the Basin. “The discussion paper should serve as an important wake up call to the Federal Government who continue to use old tools, for today’s challenges”, said NIC CEO, Zara Lowien.[...]

The MDBA have opened registrations for a series of webinars to support their consultation approach on the Basin Plan Review. The initial topics being how to make a submission, Menindee and SDL assessments. The webinars will be recorded and start from Monday next week. 

A link on these webinars is not yet available on their website but is available by clicking here. 

We have set up a new  Members only page on our website with all the information you need on the Basin Plan Review.

Reminder, you will need to have set up your Member sign in to access the page and all the information. 

The Department are reviewing the role of the Inspector-General of Water Compliance, to ensure it continues to add value to the management of the Murray Darling Basin.

This review is a requirement of the Water Act 2007 and must be completed by 30 June 2026.

Independent reviewers have been appointed.  A survey and or submissions are due by 25 February 2026.

The NIC Board are wanting to undertake a mid-term review of the performance and value of NIC, since the adoption of the new Strategic Plan and membership changes.  To inform this process, the Board are seeking views from Members and other targeted stakeholders on NIC performance, and how we represent the industry to Members and external stakeholders. 

A brief survey has been set up providing you and your organisation an opportunity to provide input and feedback to the Board.  It should take up to 10 minutes depending on your desired level of input.  The Survey will be open until 6th February 2026.

As always, please feel free to reach out to any of the Directors or Zara with feedback and input. 

“Today’s announcement is just smoke and mirrors by the Albanese Government,” said National Irrigators’ Council CEO, Zara Lowien. “Listing these areas [parts of Murray Basin floodplain] only adds complexity, creates uncertainty for new developments, overlooks the progress of the Basin Plan and offers no new solutions.” [...]

Office Closure

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.

Ministerial Council update

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.

 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. 

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