The Murray-Darling Basin Authority will publish a Review Report in late 2026, which will outline findings and recommendations for improving Basin water management during the next decade.
The Murray-Darling Basin Authority (MDBA) is reviewing its Basin Plan, which will look at whether change is needed to make this document work as efficiently and effectively as possible.
Made in law in 2012, the Basin Plan's purpose was to improve the health of the Basin’s rivers and groundwater systems in response to water management concerns noted during the Millennium drought.
For more information about the Basin Plan and the 2026 Basin Plan Review, please click here.
Council's submission to the Basin Plan Review
Council's five-page submission to the review called on the Murray-Darling Basin Authority (MDBA) to recalibrate the Murray-Darling Basin Plan to reflect that the municipality has been the hardest impacted area in northern Victoria.
The submission highlights various statistic from REMPLAN’s Conceptual Water Loss Funding Framework – Gannawarra Shire Council (December 2025) report that confirm the Basin Plan’s negative impact on the Gannawarra, including:
- A 51 per cent reduction in the Gannawarra’s irrigated pastures and crops footprint from 1995-2000 to 2015-2019, resulting from the removal of half of the irrigation water from the system on which the Gannawarra primarily depends on.
- A 38 per cent reduction in agriculture-related jobs between 1996 and 2021.
- A 57 per cent decline in food product manufacturing jobs between 1996 and 2021.
Council’s submission features seven recommendations, including:
- Recognition that the Gannawarra is the most water-impacted local government area in northern Victoria and allocate any future Sustainable Communities Program funding proportional to measured impact.
- Acknowledge Torrumbarry's structural exposure within Zone 7 and examine the creation of a discrete Zone 7A to enable targeted policy responses.
- Halt further water recovery until constraints relaxation and complementary works are delivered and independently modelled.
- Expand MDBA modelling to include scenarios isolating constraints relaxation, the 300-gigalitre Sustainable Diversion Limit Adjustment Mechanism (SDLAM) redress, staggered recovery, and revised utilisation assumptions reflecting observed underuse.
- Integrate climate risk into socio-economic modelling now, including explicit modelling of the next drought under a reduced consumptive pool.
- Recognise cumulative reallocation pressures on northern Victorian irrigation communities, including urban transfers via the Goldfields Superpipe and cross-border demand effects.
- Resolve the contradiction between Basin Plan water settings and State housing and growth targets imposed on Gannawarra, through coordinated Commonwealth–State recognition.
To read Council's submission, please click here(PDF, 926KB).