Your RGA team advocating for you -November

The Plan is Adaptive and Flexible
As we head into 2020 it's on the wave of greater hope and expectation that these long years of trying to work with unworkable Basin and Water Sharing Plans is nearing an end.  READ MORE

ACCC Murray-Darling Basin water markets inquiry
The RGA lodged its submission on 29 November. While supporting the water market as an important business tool for irrigators, RGA called for greater transparency and real time trade through a single southern Basin platform; the licensing and regulation of brokers; the retention of carryover but with a review to test the sensitivity of NSW and Victorian settings in relation to potential impact on allocations and entitlement reliability.

READ RGA'S FULL SUBMISSION HERE

Independent Review of the Water for the Environment Special Account (WESA).
The WESA Act appropriates the $1.775 billion to pay for recovering the 450 GL and relaxing constraints. This statutory review asks only if the 450GL can be recovered in practice, on time and on budget. The RGA submission explains in detail why it is unlikely the water can be recovered, and why the full amount is not mandatory under the Basin Plan, contrary to the claims of federal officials. It will be lodged on 6 December, and available on the RGA website soon afterwards.

READ RGA's FULL SUBMISSION HERE

RGA Presentation to the Miyagi Prefecture Tour Group
Neil Bull presented to the Miyagi Prefecture Tour Group at SunRice in Leeton. This group suggested that as production in Japan declines, there will be an opportunity to export more Australian rice to Japan.

NSW Irrigators Council general meeting
On the 6 & 7th of November Claire Miller attended the NSWIC general meeting. Range of speakers, including Ramzi Jabbour, Deputy Inspector General of Murray-Darlin Basin Water Resources; Vanessa O’Keefe, DPIE (water sharing plans); and Clayton Barr, NSW shadow water minister. RGA sought clarity on critical issues, such as scope of the Inspector-General’s powers to hold policy-makers accountable for Murray-Darling Basin Plan implementation; our concerns about the Water Sharing Plans and our expectations of how DPIE would handle stakeholders’ feedback; and, the NSW ALP position on the Basin Plan relative to their federal counterparts.

RGA's Office Manager Carmel completed the Mental Health First Aid Training at Yanco DPI and is now an accredited Standard Mental Health First Aider.

Round table Independent Review of the Water for the Environment Special Account (WESA) 
Graeme attended a round table by invitation of the independent panel conducting the first Independent Review of the Water for the Environment Special Account (WESA). This is a requirement of the Water Act 2007, for more detail see
http://www.agriculture.gov.au/water/mdb/policy/wesa-review.  The RGA wrote a submission to this review which closed on 6 December 2019. Read the submission.

As a member of the NFF Telecommunications and Social Policy Committee
And Rural, Regional and Remote Communications Coalition, Belinda Lambert attended a special breifing from NBN prior to their public announcement - an opportunity to ask questions of Telstra regarding plans to switch of its 3G service in June 2024.

ACCC hearings in Griffith and Deniliquin. 
Claire Miller attended the hearings on behalf of RGA to gain insight into broad community and stakeholder issues raised at the hearings, to help inform the RGA Water Committee’s workshop on 14 November to discuss the priority issues to address in our submission.

Murray Regional Strategy Group Meeting, Deniliquin. 
Rob Massina and Graeme Kruger attended the meeting on behalf of RGA, it’s good to see Murray Valley stakeholders working together on important matters.
There has been good collaboration with members of the Murray Regional Strategy Group (MRSG) to achieve outcomes that are specific to irrigators in the Murray Valley. Recent outcomes have been:

• Joint letter to the NSW Water Minister and Deputy Premiere expressing concerns associated with the Water Sharing Plans.
• Development of a NSW Murray and Lowers Darling Water Sharing Plan that is collectively supported.

National Farmers Federation Murray and Murrumbidgee Stakeholder Meeting. 
Graeme participated in engagement sessions coordinated by National Farmers Federation (NFF) with Murray and Murrumbidgee Valley stakeholders.  Also in attendance, were NSW Farmers representatives and the Interim Inspector General for the Murray Darling Basin Plan, Mick Keelty.  NFF also provided a copy of their Murray Darling Basin Policy positions.

Murray Darling Basin Authority peak group briefing 
Attended by Rob Massina, the briefing announced that from 1 December 2019, the responsibility for water functions, including the Murray-Darling Basin Authority, will transfer to the Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Cities and Regional Development portfolio. The Water Group has been established in the Department and will consist of the National Water Grid Authority and the Murray-Darling Basin Programs Division. Another key point discussed, was the Government’s announcement of the 100GL of water to be available in the Murray for fodder production. Applications opened 9th December.

Water Committee Workshop
Claire Miller facilitated a RGA water committee workshop to inform our positions in the RGA submission to the ACCC water markets inquiry.

Meeting with Shadow Minister of Water 
Claire Miller and Rob Massina met with the Shadow Minister of Water, Terri Buttler MP at our Deni offices. RGA articulated its concerns about the Basin Plan’s implementation and the need for bipartisan support for reforms in the face of unforeseen and perverse outcomes emerging from its implementation. RGA left the shadow minister with a briefing note detailing our policy asks, and later additional information on the flaws in modelling to support the 450GL.

National Agriculture Day Breakfast

Graeme attended a National Agriculture Day (AgDay) breakfast in NSW Parliament House by invitation from the Minister of Agriculture. It was also an opportunity to acknowledge NSW state's world-class food and fibre producers and to launch the 2019 Performance, Data and Insights (PDI) report  Read the report here.

Board meeting and AGM of the Rice Marketing Board of NSW
Graeme also attended the AGM with the RGA President who provided a verbal report of the RGA’s activities.

Thermal Drone Trials
Neil Bull has been working with Lachlan Feeney from Australian UAV testing the RGA drone to find and monitor Australasian Bitterns in the Barmah-Milawa Ramsar wetlands. The RGA drone is being flown on programmed missions to capture both thermal and standard images simultaneously as it flys at 7.5metres/second and 30 metres above these wetlands.

MDBA and DPIE information session for RGA Water Committee members and Murray Region Strategy Group, Deniliquin.
Main presentation was on MBDA investigation into declining capacity through the Barmah Choke: jury is still out but it may be a combination of higher, longer flows and sand moving through from mining a century ago in the upper tributaries. Also discussed were river operations and the challenges of meeting irrigation and environmental demand downstream as the Darling and other tributaries become less reliable. 

Round Table for Independent Panel
RGA organised a roundtable of young farmers and business people for the Independent Panel assessing social and economic conditions in the Murray-Darling Basin. General consensus was that the Basin Plan and other water reforms had created an uncertain future for the next generation, disrupting succession planning.

Go to the RGA Website to learn more about your team