Watertrust Australia’s submission to the Basin Plan Review

Watertrust Australia’s recent submission to the Murray Darling Basin Review focuses on strengthening decision-making processes that engage with stakeholders in ways that legitimise those decisions and lead to workable solutions.

In the contested world of water policy, disagreements are likely. But with transparent, inclusive and well-reasoned deliberation in place, deadlock and impasse does not have to be inevitable.

Specifically, we recommend embedding more deliberative, structured and inclusive decision-making practices within key elements of the Murray Darling Basin Plan’s (the Plan) governance framework so that they become required practice.

Our seven recommendations focus on how to embed these changes effectively within the Plan. While the Plan, established in 2012, was a significant national achievement, a common problem that arose during implementation has been a lack of legitimacy with impacted stakeholders. Stakeholders have often been unable to meaningfully engage with decisions for a number of reasons. These include issues such as overly technical information, a lack of access to that information and remote top-down decision-making processes made between and within governments, with no explanation given to those impacted.

Recent findings of the Inspector-General of Water Compliance also note that technical and planning information in the northern basin is not always shared in ways that enable meaningful deliberation with stakeholders. This problem arises not from a lack of information but from a lack of any process to translate technical material into a shared understanding.

These problems with how decisions are developed, tested and explained to affected stakeholders have led to perceptions of unfairness. This in turn has led to implementation failures and deadlocks. In the southern basin for example, several Sustainable Diversion Limits adjustment projects have stalled due to stakeholder concerns as well as significant technical and governance complexity. As a result the volume of water offset through these projects will be hundreds of gigalitres less than originally expected.

The implementation of our recommendations would contribute to the development of a mosaic of well-designed, locally owned solutions that could strengthen Basin communities’ capacity to adapt to a changing climate and ensure that the Basin Plan’s objectives are met.

The Murray Darling Basin Authority will publish all submissions to the Basin Plan along with a ‘What we have heart’ report on their website.

If you would like to discuss, call Karen 0458 699 090

Read our newsletter here or join our mailing list now to stay up to date with the latest news from Watertrust Australia.