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City of Greater Shepparton
URL: http://www.greatershepparton.com.au/council/communityconsultation/consultation/murraydarlingbasinplan/
Council’s Submission to the Murray Darling Basin Plan
Greater Shepparton City Council has finalised its submission to the proposed Murray Darling Basin Plan.
The Murray Darling Basin Authority released the proposed plan last year to help address an over-allocation of water in the Murray Darling Basin and improve environmental outcomes for the Murray and Darling river systems.
Based on community input, including special stakeholder sessions earlier this year, Council’s submission highlights some concerns and ideas to strengthen the current proposed plan centred around:
- Community impacts: high level of impact on local communities due to economic dependency on irrigated farming, with limited availability of information on what the final impacts will be.
- Water buybacks: ongoing impacts on communities and businesses due to the permanently reduced capacity for agricultural production and cost burden on remaining system users.
- Sustainable Diversion Limits (SDLs): 2750GL of water represents considerable cuts to irrigation entitlements with significant repercussions for the farming sector and local economy.
- Infrastructure and efficiency: recognition that investment in infrastructure will realise universally beneficial outcomes for the environment and irrigation communities.
- 971GL Southern Basin shared allocation reduction: there is no clarity around how much water will be drawn from each region.
- Unintended consequences: we may lose other sites that play an important environmental role on both public and private land for the sake of those sites environmental sites nominated in the plan
Regional submission
Greater Shepparton City Council has also partnered with seven other northern Victorian councils as part of a joint regional submission covering the Murray River Group of Councils plus Strathbogie and Greater Shepparton – this is the largest irrigation area in Australia. The regional submission covers similar themes to the Greater Shepparton submission and includes a nine-point regional action plan.
Copies of Greater Shepparton City Council’s submission and the regional submission are available below. A copy of a summary presentation by RMCG who helped devleop Council's submission is also available for download.
Earlier submissions
Earlier submissions regarding the original Guide to the Murray Darling Basin Plan and a copy of the Declaration of Concern signed by more than 40 councils in Canberra when the Guide was first releases are also available from the 'More In This Section' links at the bottom of this page.
Related Links
Greater Shepparton City Council's submission to the Proposed Murray River Basin Plan.
Summary of key points
Submission from Murray River Group of Councils plus Greater Shepparton City Council and Strathbogie Shire Council.
More In This Section
In November 2010 more than 40 Murray River Councils from New South Wales, Victoria and South Australia travelled to Canberra and signed a Declaration of Concern about the Guide to the Murray Darling Basin Plan. The Declaration urged the Federal Government to adopt a balanced approach to the development of the Murray-Darling Basin Plan. In 2011, a new approach to the Plan was developed.
In this section you will find the Greater Shepparton City Council's submission to the Guide to the Murray Darling Basin Plan and the Murray Group of Council's submission to the guide to the Murray Darling Basin Plan.
Council is currently preparing a submission on the Murray Darling Basin Authority's Draft Basin Plan.