RAMJO appointed Claire Miller Consulting to provide research and submission support for our response to the 2026 Murray-Darling Basin Plan Review. The appointment strengthened RAMJO’s capacity to develop a clear, evidence-based submission reflecting the priorities of Riverina and Murray communities.
Claire Miller is an experienced water policy and communications professional with longstanding involvement in Basin policy reform and stakeholder engagement, including with local government across the NSW Riverina and northern Victoria.
Under the engagement, Claire supported RAMJO across key components of submission development, including policy issue mapping, stakeholder and ally identification, socio-economic and environmental analysis, and preparation of a structured draft and final submission for RAMJO member review.
During our research process RAMJO facilitated meetings with other stakeholders in the Murray-Darling Basin, including the Murray Darling Association and Queensland, South Australian and Victorian Councils.
RAMJO also commissioned REMPLAN with providing a study focused on the effects of the MDBA water buy-backs on Rice growing in Deniliquin and Leeton, as the flow on effect after farm gate is not under consideration by ABARES and therefor the MDBA. This was submitted to the MDBA as part of RAMJO’s submission.
Once the submission period closed we contacted the MDBA Chair with a request, shared by many other stakeholders, seeking their (MDBA) draft report be released for further public consultation prior to adoption. They have rejected this request stating:
“Unfortunately the process defined in the Water Act and agreed with Basin governments does not provide sufficient time to release a draft report and consult on its contents”.
CEO Andrew McConville was interviewed on ABC Riverina after we received their reply and did not acknowledge that they had rejected the above request. He said it was still under consideration. He also made mention that the MDBA would release the “what we heard report”. This is now a standard tactic by all manner of Government Departments (Federal and State) to create an impression that they have listened. These documents are carefully worded (vanilla) so that they are non-committal to making any changes to their entrenched position.
With approximately 2,400 submissions received during the exhibition process, the MDBA is likely to claim that there is insufficient time to consider all of these and incorporate into a draft report and put out again for public comment. This excuse does not stack up. The final report is not required to be delivered to the Minister until 31 December 2026. The MDBA has access to sophisticated IT platforms including databases and AI that can assess submissions, extract common issues, prepare tables etc in very quick time.
We at RAMJO believe we must keep pushing back on this. The MDBA is treating regional Australia with contempt. Their draft report should be exposed to the public just like local democracies are required to do.