Water’s Edge

In this episode of Water’s Edge: if 2023 was a year of climate opposites, then what’s ahead for 2024 and what does it mean for the Murray-Darling Basin?  Get the answers from this episode’s guest, Professor Albert Van Dijk from the Australian National University, who led the 2023 Australia’s Environment Report.    Plus, the Inspector-General of Water Compliance Troy Grant takes the report off the page and into the Murray-Darling Basin.  And hear from Narromine grower Tim Gainsford as a one of the people putting this into practice in the Basin.  Got a question you’d like answered in Water’s edge? Email it to us at contact@igwc.gov.au, with the subject line ‘Water’s Edge podcast’.  Water’s Edge is produced by the independent Inspector-General of Water Compliance.   Reports:  2023 Australia’s Environment Report: ausenv.tern.org.au/aer.html  Global Water Monitor 2023 Summary Report: globalwater.online/globalwater/report.html 

According to the IGWC’s Annual Community sentiment survey, only 15% of people know that the ACT is actually a part of the Murray-Darling Basin. While the ACT makes up  a small portion of the Basin compared to other states, it still brings significant economic and environmental benefits to the Basin. In this final episode of season 2 of Water’s Edge, we chat to Dr Su Wild-River. Su is the ACT’s delegate on the Regulatory Leaders Forum, and from the ACT Environmental Protection Authority.   Visit our website igwc.gov.au for more information. 

77% of the general population doesn't know whether they live in the Murray-Darling Basin, despite it being the country's largest area of agricultural production - the food bowl producing a third of our food supply.  Join us for this episode of Water's Edge, as we learn more fun facts about how people in the Basin feel about water management through the Inspector-General of Water Compliance's annual community sentiment survey.  Episode guests are Deputy Inspector-General of Capability Bridgett Leopold and Assistant Director of Intelligence and Engagement Rachel McNamara.  Read about the Steady as it Flows report: Steady as it flows – An assessment of River Murray operations and environmental water management (PDF 4.90 MB) Read our annual community sentiment survey: https://www.igwc.gov.au/publications/annual-survey  

Were you at this year's AgQuip? Celebrating 50 years of Australia's largest agricultural field days, the Inspector-General went along for the first time, to speak to people about the work that we do. We also learnt about what some of the issues are in the community and how it's affecting people around water compliance and regulation.  We're now heading to Riverland Field Days, and then straight to Henty after that so we'd love to hear from you. 

Join us for part two of our chat with Grant Barnes from the NSW Natural Resources Access Regulator, and Deputy Inspector-General of Water Compliance Daniel Blacker.  The role of the independent Inspector-General of Water Compliance is to deliver trust and transparency in the management of Murray-Darling Basin resources, and ensure the highest standard of accountability for all involved in the use and management of Basin resources. Often, the role of the Inspector-General is confused with the role of state agencies such as the Natural Resources Access Regulator, or NRAR, in NSW. When the role of the Inspector-General was established, it was noted in the legislation that the role was not intended to duplicate the role of other agencies. The Inspector-General aims to oversight and monitor agencies, ensuring they are complying with the Basin Plan and Water Act. The role of state agencies like NRAR is to enforce and prosecute individuals.    Joining us on today’s episode of Water’s Edge is NRAR’s Chief Regulatory Officer Grant Barnes, and our Deputy Inspector-General of Water Compliance Daniel Blacker. Learn more about NRAR: https://www.nrar.nsw.gov.au/  Visit the IGWC's website: https://www.igwc.gov.au/ 

The role of the independent Inspector-General of Water Compliance is to deliver trust and transparency in the management of Murray-Darling Basin resources, and ensure the highest standard of accountability for all involved in the use and management of Basin resources. Often, the role of the Inspector-General is confused with the role of state agencies such as the Natural Resources Access Regulator, or NRAR, in NSW. When the role of the Inspector-General was established, it was noted in the legislation that the role was not intended to duplicate the role of other agencies. The Inspector-General aims to oversight and monitor agencies, ensuring they are complying with the Basin Plan and Water Act. The role of state agencies like NRAR is to enforce and prosecute individuals.    Joining us on today’s episode of Water’s Edge is NRAR’s Chief Regulatory Officer Grant Barnes, and our Deputy Inspector-General of Water Compliance Daniel Blacker.

Join us for our first edition of our special Water's Edge: Myth Busting episodes. In this first myth busting episode, we discuss the current buybacks process, and answer your questions about what it is, why it's happening, and how it's being rolled out.  If you have any special requests for a myth busting episode, we want to hear from you! Email IGWCmedia@agriculture.gov.au or call us on 13 44 92.   

Recently the Inspector-General of Water Compliance Troy Grant paid a visit to the Barmah Choke. The Choke is located on the border of Victoria and NSW just north of Echuca, and has the lowest flow in any stretch of the River Murray. The Inspector-General was there meeting with community members to learn more about the Choke and its significance in the Murray-Darling. His visit comes ahead of a fairly significant time of year. Trade through the Choke opens on 1 July and to explain a little more about the significance of that is IGWC’s Director of Trade Regulation, Edwina Carter. Edwina explains how trade through the Barmah Choke works, when there’s a limited amount of water able to flow through this shallow, narrow section of the River Murray.

On the first of October 2019, former Australian Federal Police Commissioner Mick Keelty was appointed at the Interim Inspector-General of Murray-Darling Basin Water Resources for a period of 12 months. It followed his role as the Northern Basin Commissioner. Mr Keelty was appointed to this position to help create new laws under the 2007 Water Act to create a permanent, statutory position.   In August 2021, the role of the Inspector-General of Water Compliance was officially filled by Troy Grant, after Mr Keelty decided not to continue in the role. This episode of Water's Edge gives listeners a sneak peak at what it was like during the establishment phase of the role of the Inspector-General of Water Compliance. 

These last couple of months have seen a significant amount of rain across the Murray-Darling Basin, which has reinvigorated concerns about how the river system is being managed.   The sentiment echoes what the Inspector-General first heard when starting in the role: there was a level of distrust about how to key agencies were performing their duties. The community told the Inspector—General that they didn’t think the Murray Darling Basin Authority was managing the River Murray properly. They also voiced concerns about how the Commonwealth Environmental Water Holder was managing environmental flows.   A report titled Steady as it Flows has been released by the Inspector-General which looks at these concerns. While the report was released earlier in the year, we thought it was timely to sit down and take a look at it in more detail, to learn about the role of these agencies and their responsibilities.    View the report at the IGWC's website.

In the first episode of season 2, we chat to the Bureau of Meteorology’s Matthew Coulton. Matt is the General Manager of Agriculture and Water at the Bureau and his job is to provide advice to agricultural and water agencies and businesses, and develop new products and services to increase the value and impact the Bureau provides to Australia’s agriculture sectors. In this episode, Matt explains the role of the Bureau and its responsibilities under the Water Act as Australia’s water information agency. Visit www.mdbwip.bom.gov.au for more information about the Water Information Portal.

Join the Inspector-General of Water Compliance’s Audit and Investigations team, as they take a look at the latest audit – based on trade in the Border Rivers Region. The Border Rivers Region covers a section of Northern NSW and Southern QLD, and there are separate trading rules across the two jurisdictions. This audit by the Inspector-General identified issues such as water being traded from one state, but not appearing in an account in the other state, incorrect volumes being recorded, and manual adjustments being made by authorities without documented explanations.   To view the audit report in full, or a brief Snapshot overview, visit www.igwc.gov.au/reviews-reports   Host Annabelle Hudson is joined by the Inspector-General Troy Grant, Deputy Inspector-General Daniel Blacker, Director of Audit and Investigation Matt Wilkes, and Assistant Director of Audit and Investigation Elliot Raboy.

Troy Grant and Annabelle are joined by former Auditor General of Victoria and Western Australia, Des Pearson, who conducted a review into compliance and enforcement across the Murray Darling Basin. Des and Troy are honest and forthcoming with their views about the report, and provide an insight into how water can be better managed across the Basin; with a more consistent approach to water terminologies and water accounting.  Des says in all his years of being an auditor and working in the public sector, the water space is unique in that there are so many inconsistencies with terminologies. Listen to how he thinks better collaboration between the Basin states could help resolve these issues.  Download the Des Pearson Report into compliance and enforcement here: https://www.igwc.gov.au/reviews-reports   Guests: Troy Grant, Des Pearson Host: Annabelle Hudson Produced by: Inspector-General of Water Compliance (IGWC) Episode music by: NaturesEye from Pixabay

In this episode, join the Inspector-General of Water Compliance Troy Grant and Director of Compliance Monitoring Edwina Carter as we dive into the Annual Statement of Compliance for Sustainable Diversion Limits (SDLs). NSW is behind with submitting its Water Resource Plans, so Troy explains why he's worried about the late submissions, and what it means for the communities in the Murray Darling Basin. To read more about the Statement of Compliance, visit www.igwc.gov.au. Intro music by Leigh Robinson from Pixabay. Functions of the Inspector General IGWC function  The new statutory role of the Inspector-General of Water Compliance (Inspector-General) brings together the Commonwealth’s responsibilities into a single statutory office. The Inspector-General will also have the compliance and enforcement functions currently held by the Murray-Darling Basin Authority. The new Inspector-General of Water Compliance will have regulatory powers under Commonwealth law. The Inspector-General will be able to work across the whole Basin to strengthen compliance, increase transparency and improve trust. The Inspector-General will provide independent oversight and monitoring of Commonwealth and Basin state compliance. A key priority for the Inspector-General will be to encourage greater consistency in the guidelines and standards across the Basin—so all water users are held to the same high bar. To do this, the Inspector-General will have new powers to make guidelines and standards, which will help build greater consistency across the Basin. The Inspector-General’s main areas of compliance responsibility are: monitoring and auditing of water resource plan compliance investigating and enforcing non-compliance with sustainable diversion limits and assurance of Basin state compliance and enforcement frameworks, through audits and investigations supporting the development and implementation of standards and methods to improve the accuracy of water measurement to increase the transparency of water take across the Basin enforcing compliance with the Basin Plan water trading rules monitoring and reporting on the requirements of the Basin Plan and water resource plans related to the protection of planned environmental water The MDBA will retain its roles in: assessing water resource plans SDL accounting and reporting and the development of remote sensing and emerging technologies and the evaluation of Basin Plan outcomes

In this first episode of "Water's Edge", we meet Troy Grant. We learn about how Troy came to the role, and what his vision and purpose is for the IGWC.  The IGWC aims to improve trust and transparency in implementing the Commonwealth’s Basin water reform agenda, deliver greater consistency and harmonisation of water regulation across the Basin and strengthen Basin Plan compliance and enforcement. Visit www.igwc.gov.au