• DCCEEW is consulting on a new grants program to support Basin First Nations communities to prepare cultural flow plans. The grants program is expected to be open in early 2025.
• A Four Corners episode, The Great Water Grab, revealed serious water over-allocation issues in the Northern Territory, leading to calls for a national inquiry. A joint parliamentary inquiry into water, food and energy security in Northern Australia is expected to review some of the issues raised.
• The Threatened Species Scientific Committee is consulting on whether to list the River Murray downstream of the Darling River as a critically endangered ecological community.
• DCCEEW has commenced consultation on the process for developing a new National Water Agreement
• The Federal Minister determined that the Edgar Dam raising project did not require EPBC approval, or to consider the option to demolish the dam as part of a restoration of Lake Pedder
• The Qld government rejected a proposal to use the Great Artesian Basin for carbon capture and storage.
• The Victorian government joined Qld, ACT, NSW and SA as a signatory to the revised Murray Darling Basin Plan.
• The NSW government settled a challenge to water sharing arrangements in the Borders Rivers, reaching agreement with the Nature Conservation Council that it would consider the impacts of climate change on water flows, including extraction limits and allocations, in all future decisions
• Traditional owners of the site of the Adani / Bravus mine launched legal action claiming the company is breaching their human rights by failing to prevent contamination of wetlands
• The Victorian government is developing a new Victorian Water Management Strategy
• The Productivity Commission released final reports in its inquiries into:
  • progress under the National Water Initiative
  • progress towards implementing the Basin Plan
• DCCEEW released an updated framework for delivering 450 GL of additional environmental water under the Basin Plan
• Lake Pedder Restoration Inc launched a campaign for restoration of the inland lake, flooded as part of the Franklin Dam project, as part of the UN Decade of Ecological Restoration.

• 2024 – Ongoing campaigns to reform the Water Act 2009 to ensure First Nations water rights, climate change and guaranteed water delivery, and that all decisions are based on robust science and community consultation  
• Late 2024 – draft Victorian Water Management Strategy to be released for consultation
• 18 November 2024 – responses due for DCCEEW survey on proposed grants program to support Basin First Nations communities to prepare cultural flow plans
• 9 December 2024 – submissions due on review of Water Quality policy (SA)
• 31 December 2024 – Murray Darling Basin Authority must prepare a “constraints relaxation implementation roadmap” under the Basin Plan 
• 25 January 2025 – submissions due to Northern Australia Energy, Food and Water Security inquiry
• 2025 – Long Term Water Resource Assessment for northern Victoria will commence (aligned with the Murray-Darling Basin Plan review), looking at any changes in water availability or waterway health due to changes in flow.
  This work will inform the overdue review of the Northern Region Sustainable Water Strategy. 
• 2026 – Basin Plan review (and completion of all buyback and allocation projects by 31 December 2026)

• Promoting regeneration and water allocation initiatives through the Nature Funding Framework
• Hosting Rivers of the North working group events, including a briefing with Tim Nicol and Dr Clare Taylor on what is needed to secure the health of rivers and landscapes in northern Australia
• Hosting information sessions to keep members informed on progress of the planned Basin reforms, water reforms, and advocacy opportunities

• Use the Nature Funding Framework to inform funding decisions.
• Attend, promote and support community events in Basin catchments, and help community members to be involved in advocacy (e.g. sharing community mapping resources, covering travel costs to meet with Ministers)
• Join the Nature Impact Collective for collaborative funding of inland water projects
• Write to relevant Ministers and local members to share your thoughts about priorities under the Basin Plan (contact the Advocacy Manager for support to do this)
• Host a local screening of “Pedder”
• Contact the Program Manager – Nature to discuss funding and collaboration options
  
  Current Clearinghouse projects:
  • Federal commitments for the Murray Darling (Murray Darling Conservation Alliance)
  • Rivers Campaigner for NT (Environment Centre NT)
  • Securing the Health of the Murray Darling Basin (Wentworth Group of Concerned Scientists)
  • Restore Lake Pedder (Lake Pedder Restoration Inc)

• Basin Plan – supporting documents (Murray Darling Basin Authority)
• Wentworth Group of Scientists’ submission on Restoring Our Rivers Bill
• Murray Darling Conservation Alliance campaign page
• Senate inquiry report into the Restoring Our Rivers Bill
• Lake Pedder – ecological, economic and cultural heritage studies

Organisations working on this issue 

Useful government contacts