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Department of Agriculture

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  1. Home
  2. Water
  3. Water policy and resources
  4. Murray–Darling Basin
  5. Murray–Darling Basin policy
  6. Independent assessment of the social and economic conditions in the Basin

Sidebar first - Water

  • Murray–Darling Basin policy
    • Independent assessment of the social and economic conditions in the Basin
    • Review of the Water for the Environment Special Account

Independent assessment of the social and economic conditions in the Basin

In June 2019 the Hon. David Littleproud MP, then Minister for Water Resources, Drought, Rural Finance, Natural Disaster and Emergency Management, established an independent panel to provide an assessment of the social and economic conditions in regional communities across the Murray–Darling Basin. The independent panel comprised Ms Robbie Sefton (Chair), Mr Rene Woods, Mr Andrew Kassebaum, Mr David McKenzie, Dr Deborah Peterson, Ms Michelle Ramsay and Mr Bruce Simpson.

Learn more about the assessment.

Public consultation

The panel was asked to consult across Basin communities most impacted by water reform on issues affecting social and economic wellbeing. The objective was to understand where Basin governments can best apply resources to support communities and lessen water reform impacts. Stakeholder feedback and commissioned research informed the panel’s findings and recommendations.

Learn more about the public consultation process.

Final report

The panel’s report, Independent assessment of the social and economic conditions in the Basin, was provided to the Hon Keith Pitt MP, Minister for Resources, Water and Northern Australia on 30 April 2020.

Australian Government response

The Australian Government responded to the report on 2 October 2020. You can read the government’s response on the department's website. Responding to and implementing recommendations in the report is a shared responsibility of the Commonwealth and Basin states.

Downloads

Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment, 2020

Document Pages File size
Independent assessment of the social economic conditions in the Basin PDFPDF Icon 86 10.0 MB

Commissioned Research -Literature Reviews

Document Pages File size
Community Adaptation and Resilience by CSIRO (Nicola Grigg, Deborah O’Connell and Michael Dunlop) PDFPDF Icon 40 840 KB
Economic Assessments of Basin communities, and Basin water reforms by Marsden Jacob Associates (Gavan Dwyer and Jeremy Cheesman) PDFPDF Icon 71 1.7 MB
Economic Policies and Conditions in the Murray–Darling Basin by National Centre for Social and Economic Modelling (NATSEM) (Robert Tanton and Yogi Vidyattama) PDFPDF Icon 52 2.2 MB
Wellbeing, resilience and adaptive capacity - A review of current knowledge of social conditions in the Murray-Darling Basin by University of Canberra (Jacki Schirmer, Lain Dare and Melinda Mylek) PDFPDF Icon 69 1.2 MB

Commissioned Research - Case Study Reports

Document Pages File size
Recreational fishing in the Murray-Darling Basin by Marsden Jacob Associates (Jeremy Cheesman, David Rogers and Stuart MacLachlan) PDFPDF Icon 31 631 KB
Rice in the Riverina by Marsden Jacob Associates (Gavan Dwyer, Matthew Clarke and Jeremy Cheesman) PDFPDF Icon 32 1.5MB
Horticulture below the Barmah Choke by Marsden Jacob Associates (Gavan Dwyer, Matthew Clarke, Makere Hurst, Jeremy Cheesman and Lachlan Dawson) PDFPDF Icon 52 2.0 MB
Dairy in Northern Victoria by Marsden Jacob Associates (Gavan Dwyer, Matthew Clarke, Makere Hurst and Jeremy Cheesman) PDFPDF Icon 46 1.7 MB
Cotton in the Murray–Darling Basin by Marsden Jacob Associates (David Rogers and Gavan Dwyer) PDFPDF Icon 37 1.5 MB
Recreational boating in the Murray-Darling Basin by Marsden Jacob Associates (Jeremy Cheesman, David Rogers and Stuart MacLachlan) PDFPDF Icon 42 959 KB
Modelling variants of the Murray-Darling Basin Plan in the context of adverse conditions in the Basin by Victoria University (Glyn Wittwer) PDFPDF Icon 43 2.8 MB
Thriving, surviving, or declining communities: socio-economic change in Murray-Darling Basin communities by University of Canberra (Jacki Schirmer, Melinda Mylek and Dominic Peel) PDFPDF Icon 77 5.2 MB
Future scenarios for the southern Murray-Darling Basin by ABARES (Mihir Gupta, Neal Hughes, Linden Whittle and Tim Westwood) PDFPDF Icon 28 2.6 MB

Commissioned Research - Trends and Drivers

Document Pages File size
Indigenous water in the Murray-Darling Basin by Marsden Jacob Associates (Jeremy Cheesman and Stuart MacLachlan) PDFPDF Icon 31 759 KB
Urban Water in the Murray-Darling Basin by Marsden Jacob Associates (Jeremy Cheesman and Stuart MacLachlan) PDFPDF Icon 41 925 KB
Northern Basin Supplementary Commentary by Marsden Jacob Associates (Jeremy Cheesman and Stuart MacLachlan) PDFPDF Icon 26 853 KB

If you have difficulty accessing these files, visit web accessibility for assistance, noting the panel’s report and the commissioned reports have not been prepared by the department and may not meet Australian Government accessibility guidelines.

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Last updated: 01 October 2020

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