The National Irrigators Council (NIC) held a series of meetings in Sydney this week.

In the lead-up to a Federal Election campaign, the meeting endorsed policy statements on the Murray-Darling Basin Plan, the Sustainable Diversion Limits Adjustment Mechanism (SDLAM) Reconciliation Framework, and Constraint Management. These statements have provided clarity on the NIC’s advocacy position and clearly focus on minimising the impacts of the Basin Plan while also recognising its legitimacy.

The meeting also received a comprehensive briefing on the Risk Assignment Framework, a feature of the current National Water Initiative but also included in the draft National Water Agreement. This framework has taken on increasing importance, given NSW’s (in particular) increased use of rules-based changes rather than the market to make changes to water sharing.

The Risk Assignment Framework is very complex, but it does allow, under some circumstances, for jurisdictions to impact water shares through rule changes, with either no or limited compensation. This is a double-edged sword, as it provides a degree of certainty (although the actual application is very “grey”), but it also falls a long way short of full market-based compensation.

The meeting also received a comprehensive briefing from both the NSW Department and the Murray-Darling Basin Authority (MDBA) on the current proposals for the better management of Menindee Lakes.

The Board met and spent some time reviewing and adjusting the organisation’s strategy to better support the work of the NIC in protecting the property rights of irrigation entitlement holders.