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Murray Darling Basin Authority
Funding deed for feasibility study finalised
As communicated with shareholders in June 2024, Murray Irrigation (MIL) and our fellow southern irrigation infrastructure operators (IIOs), Coleambally Irrigation Cooperative Limited (CICL) and Murrumbidgee Irrigation Limited (MI), applied for funding under the Australian Government’s Resilient Rivers Water Infrastructure Program for a feasibility study to explore what is required to bolster the efficiency and resilience of our irrigation networks in an era of water recovery.
The brutal cost of ignoring the bush: Australia’s rural collapse
Government changes have reallocated 3,200 gigalitres of irrigation water to environmental flows, much of it unmetered and flowing out to sea, creating dire consequences for regional food production. The Gannawarra Region alone is losing $1.3 billion annually – and these impacts are expected to worsen.
Farmers set their sights on federal election after underwhelming budget: NFF
...Federal Budget underscores just how critical the upcoming election will be to deliver the key investments needed to secure and grow Australian agriculture in an increasingly uncertain environment. National Farmers’ Federation President David Jochinke said this was a chance for the Federal Government to back Australian agriculture and give the economy a much-needed shot in the arm.
Politics drives Basin demise
Australia’s largest water reform project, the Murray Darling Basin Plan, appears to be joining a growing list of abject failures driven by politicians and bureaucrats who have little to no wisdom, ethics or skin in the game. Unless of course, that skin is water trading ... Despite constitutional protections, the Australian Federal Government's $13b has fuelled a 50 per cent reduction in NSW and Victorian irrigation water use since 1997-98. SA saw a 22 per cent reduction, while Qld bucked the trend increasing extraction by roughly 58 per cent.
Independent Member for Murray, Helen Dalton, has declared South Australians to be Australia’s worst water wasters
She is arguing they don’t need, or deserve, access to water from NSW and Victoria. In her new social media video Mrs. Dalton contends that the reason South Australians don’t have enough water is because the State wastes the water it already has.
Water debate continues to flow
Hugh Schuitemaker. The Federal Government says it is reaching new milestones in recovering environmental water, however senior Riverland politicians claim a focus on fulfilling the Murray-Darling Basin Plan is harming local growers and irrigators. Statistics released last week by the Federal Government show 286GL of water for the environment has been recovered under the Murray-Darling Basin Plan.
Commonwealth cozies up with corporates to kill family farms: VFF
The Victorian Farmers Federation (VFF) says ... Commonwealth Government announcement to purchase 30,614 megalitres (ML) of water from Duxton Water has sent off alarm bells in Basin communities. VFF President Brett Hosking said the $121.3m water sale would hurt farmers and regional communities the most.
Huge milestone proves Murray-Darling Basin Plan is back on track: Plibersek
The Albanese Government is delivering over 100 times more additional environmental water in one term than the previous Liberal National Government delivered in a decade. This is a huge win for South Australia.
Labor’s cynical agriculture pledge too little, too late: Littleproud
Leader of The Nationals David Littleproud said Labor can’t be trusted on its hollow promise to deliver a food security plan, after treating the sector with contempt, with new taxes, soaring energy prices, and a crippling Industrial Relations (IR) and workforce agenda. Mr Littleproud said Labor had ignored calls from industries across the supply chain for almost three years for a security and resilience plan, to get food from paddock to plate.
Basin water conference comes to lower Murray in 2025: MDBA, Murray Bridge Council
The Murray–Darling Basin Authority (MDBA) will hold its fifth annual water conference 29 and 30 July in the city of Murray Bridge in regional South Australia. MDBA Chief Executive Andrew McConville said it was the first time River Reflections would be held in this part of the southern Basin where community interests and water management challenges differed to those further upstream.
