NATIONAL IRRIGATORS’ COUNCIL
RESEARCH & ANALYSIS
Advocating for the Australian irrigated agriculture industry
NATIONAL IRRIGATORS’ COUNCIL
Advocating for the Australian irrigated agriculture industry
Our role as an irrigation industry leader means we must be informed and inform our industry (Members, Partners and Supporters) of key research and their relevance to contemporary water policy. Many of these resources are available via our website covering the following key themes:
We publish our reviews of research and reports via our website, as part of ensuring accurate, factual and balanced understanding of water policy. These can often be critical reviews or endorsements. From time to time, we undertake in-house analysis on available data and research gaps.
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. [...]
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.
Find out more about our community, and join our mission advocating for the Australian irrigated
agriculture industry.