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.
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.
The 450 GL program has fundamentally changed since it was first conceived. The original budget has been exhausted, expected costs have
escalated significantly, the scope of the program has expanded, and new environmental evidence has emerged. Despite these material changes,
there has been no transparent reassessment of whether continued expenditure represents the most effective, efficient and economical
investment to achieve environmental outcomes and deliver benefits to the Australian economy [...]
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. [...]
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