Below is a news item I picked up on the ABC. See below. The MDB Plan had been due for release in early July. Is the delay in releasing the Murray Darling Basin Plan because of the changes in Labor's leadership? Does it have to wait for review by a possible new Minister, a new Cabinet, by Julia herself?
Authority takes its time on Murray-Darling plan
The release of the much-anticipated new Murray-Darling basin plan is now expected in August.
The plan will set new limits on how much of the basin's water can be used for production and urban supplies, and is being tipped to substantially cut entitlements.
The plan was due in the middle of the year, but the Murray-Darling Basin Authority's Di Davidson says early August is now the target date.
"We are spending a lot of time on the various scenarios that we can model, particularly including social and economic information as well as all the environmental and hydrology information, so we can get this first guide to the plan in its best possible form," she said.
I would prefer them to take longer and release something worthwhile than chuck it out early just to meet a previous obligation. Although this is only a draft, and according to the MDBA, very open to being changed, I want them to do their best on the first draft.
ReplyDeleteThank you for your comment, Dave. Curious. The little you have said indicates you seem to have some sound knowledge and your ISP address indicates you could be a Canberra bureaucrat.
ReplyDeleteI travelled from Melbourne to Kerang in April to hear the travelling bureaucratic roadshow deliver its message to about 100 people there. Some of the irrigators raised the question of time to absorb the plan when it comes down (reading huge bureaucratic reports is not their day job). As someone with a lifetime involvement in community advocacy and community engagement, I was unimpressed with the person charged with the community engagement responsibility and the limited time in which irrigators would have to read, absorb, and discuss widely among themselves the report and its implications. My experience is that even when govt depts state or federal think they are 'consulting' or 'engaging' seldom do they do it well and, most of the time, are not using modern engagement practices. One farmer at Kerang spoke of an experience with the Victorian DSE which did go well. However, it took a very long time. I think, from memory, two years or thereabouts and they did speak to everyone, gave them adequate time for consideration and response and things came out the other end very well. I saw nothing at Kerang which gave me confidence that something similar would emerge in relation to the MDB plan. Dave, if you have more information or light to throw on this and you are unable to say it in this forum, could you drop me a line at misseaglesnetwork(at)gmail(dot)com? Would appreciate it. Thank you once again - Brigid
Hi Brigid,
ReplyDeleteI am in Canberra, but not a bureaucrat. I am scientist who is following the plan quite closely.
I have also attended a forum the mdba held earlier this year, and am a little worried that they are engaging to little too late. But having had the chance to speak to a few of their staff they seem adamant that they are spending as long re-drafting the plan as they have writing it in the first place. I know they have a huge, complex task and that there is a lot of information to process, so I'm not surprised that the release is delayed.
cheers
Dave
Thanks for that, Dave. Good to know. I am happy for them to take time but it will be nice too if they give the farmers all the time that they need.
ReplyDelete