NEW Murray-Darling Basin Authority chief Rhondda Dickson says the authority has learned valuable lessons from the hostile public reception that greeted the release of the guide to the authority’s first draft management plan last year.
Ms Dickson and several MDBA officers were in Mildura yesterday to conduct what are being called “round-table consultations” to brief irrigation community leaders on the key elements of the revised plan, and to answer any questions about the new plan.
Ms Dickson, a career bureaucrat in the field of natural resources management, was not with the authority in October 2010, when irrigators and community leaders raged against the plan at community meetings hastily organised by the authority after the plan was released – months later than originally promised.
The authority’s then-chairman, Rob Freeman, and CEO Mike Taylor, both resigned not long after the public meetings, after the Federal Government all but walked away from the plan, leaving them to take the brunt of the criticism.
Ms Dickson said yesterday the round table meetings involved only 15-20 people per session, and permitted the authority to “have a good discussion” with civic leaders, executives of water authorities and catchment-management authorities, and industry leaders, free of the hothouse atmosphere that could develop at mass public meetings.
“The round-table consultations allow community leaders to understand what is being proposed, and convey the information to their broader groups, and importantly it gives us a chance to clarify any misconceptions about the plan, which is a pretty complex matter,” she said.
The authority has been holding round-
table consultations in irrigation areas in Queensland, NSW, SA and Victoria since October; the process will continue with larger public meetings in the same communities over the next 3½ months.
“It’s been a really constructive process,” Ms Dickson said.
Of the Mildura consultation, held at the Grand Hotel yesterday, she said Mildura stakeholders had been a “pretty well-informed group”, who clearly not view the revised basin plan as a prelude to Armageddon.
“They were concerned about the way the water allocated to the environment was going to be recovered – we tried to resolve any lingering misconception that the Commonwealth would forcibly acquire water from irrigators or communities, by making it clear that we are intent on achieving water savings by investing in water-saving infrastructure.
“Some people expressed concerns about what happens when half the irrigators on trunk systems sell their water and exit farming, but people generally showed a very clear understanding that factors other than the buyback, including the prolonged drought, were mainly responsible for the problems in local horticulture.
“It was very constructive – everyone made clear their concerns about the potential impact of the revised plan on the community on both sides of the border, but our impression is that Mildura remains a strong, growing community, unlike some others in the basin.”
This article appeared in Friday's Sunraysia Daily 13/1/2012.
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