Murray–Darling Basin Authority

The MDBA reports to the Australian Government Minister for the Environment and Water, held since June 2022 by the Hon Tanya Plibersek.

[6] The Chief Executive of the MDBA is Andrew McConville who replaced Phillip Glyde and Dr Rhondda Dickson prior.

[8] With the creation of the MDBA in 2008, for the first time, a single intergovernmental body assumed responsibility for planning the integrated management of water resources of the Murray–Darling Basin.

[20] The MDBA originally reported that the volume of water as high as 7,600 gigalitres per year would bring long-term sustainability[21] and would be the best scenario for the ecosystems of the basin but "would not be socially or economically viable".

The draft plan proposed water buybacks of up to 35% in the Riverland area, forcing job losses and reduced flows to angry irrigators.

[27] Over 5,000 people attended a meeting in Griffith where the local Mayor, Mike Neville, said the plan would "obliterate" Murrumbidgee valley communities.

[35] While, in November 2010, the Authority announced that it might be forced to push back the release of its final plan for the river system until early 2012.

[36] Less than one month later, Mike Taylor, then Chair of MDBA, announced his decision to resign effective from the end of January 2011.

[37][40] In May 2011, the Wentworth Group of Concerned Scientists withdrew its support for the Basin Plan, and described the process as seriously flawed and a waste of taxpayers' money.

[41] The Wentworth Group said they could not support the Plan which they believed would cost billions and claimed that it would not fix the problems in the river system.

[41] In June 2011, a federal parliamentary committee (chaired by independent Tony Windsor) delivered its report to MDBA and its recommendations on water cutbacks in the basin.

Following much negotiation between the Commonwealth and state governments and numerous submissions from interested stakeholders and the community, the Basin Plan finally became law in November 2012.

When the Federal Government rejected the request, Weatherill then launched a South Australian Royal Commission in January 2018 to investigate.

[47] The Weatherill Ministry fell in 2019, and then the Federal Government barred Murray Darling Basin Authority officials from giving evidence to the Royal Commission.

The Commissioner, Bret Walker SC, also wrote to the new South Australian Attorney-General Vickie Chapman of the Marshall Ministry asking for an extension, but this was rejected.