2026 marked the culmination of the MDBA’s Basin Plan Review process, with the Discussion Paper published on February 5. This began the 12-week formal consultation period, followed by recommendations to the Minister later in the year. This was a powerful opportunity for the Basin Community, including all One Basin CRC partners, to have a say on government policy that affects us all over the coming decade.

Read our submission here

During this consultation period, the One Basin CRC ran a series of online panel sessions bringing together partners, researchers, and other experts to discuss the key themes and topics present in the Discussion Paper.

These sessions twin goals were:

• Bring together leading experts to make sense of the core issues, and cut through complexity in an evidence-based manner, and
• Collaborate on and coordinate practical policy innovations that will inform the CRC’s formal submission.

We are grateful for your participation in these sessions at this critical time for Basin management.

Session one: Empowering local communities

Featured panellists: Chair Bernadette Torresan (One Basin CRC), Edwina Hayes (Grounded Futures), Cr Shari Blumer (Griffith City Council), Jonathon Howard (CSU), Michael Spencer (Monash Business School), Mayor Kevin Mack (Albury City), Zara Lowien (National Irrigators Council), Chris Cumming (Watertrust Australia) & Michelle Ramsay (Consultant).

This session explores ways to elevate community leadership, local government authority, and regional‑scale coordination relevant to the Basin Plan Review. Panellists explore what system changes are needed to enable local leadership to actually influence the next phase of Basin Plan implementation and what practical changes can be implemented in the next 12–24 months to strengthen community leadership and regional governance.

Relevant CRC Resources

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Session two: Maximising economic outcomes under an increasingly variable climate in the MDB

Featured panellists: Chair Prof. Neville Crossman (One Basin CRC), Prof. Mark Morrison (CSU, Dr Jeremy Cheesman (Natural Capital & Climate), Cr Julia Spicer OAM (Goondiwindi Regional Council), Julie Bates (Regional Development Australia – Murraylands and Riverlands)

The Basin Plan has a difficult job of balancing multiple social, economic, environmental and cultural values, made more difficult by a changing climate that is predicted to intensify droughts and floods and lead to long-term declines in water availability, especially in the southern Basin.

This panel discusses economic risks and opportunities under a changing climate, the role of the Basin Plan, governments more broadly, and the rest of us have in maximising opportunities and minimising risks.

Specifically the panel discusses;

• Economic impacts of ecosystem decline or collapse, in both natural/freshwater and agricultural systems.
• How to ensure equity and fairness in economic outcomes across regions/communities/ First Nations from implementing water reform including the Basin Plan.
• The role of government and communities in supporting economic transitions and building economic resilience in a future with less water.
• The role of the Basin Plan in incentivising public and private investment in integrated & sustainable land and water management.

Relevant CRC Resources

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Session three: Realising First Nations leadership in Basin management

Featured panellists: Chair Prof. Troy Meston (Yuwaalaraay/Gamilaroi), Uncle (Dr) Dale Kerwin (Worimi), Dr Julie Ballangarry (Gumbaynggir, Dunghutti), Dr Sam Cooms (Noonuccal Quandamooka), Dr Madeleine Pugin (Kombumerri), Geoff Reid (Gomeroi)

Bringing together a diverse group of First Nations Peoples, the webinar explores pathways toward shared authority at a decisive policy moment. Across the Murray–Darling Basin, more than 50 First Nations retain unextinguished sovereignty and enduring custodial responsibilities to Country, yet decision authority over Basin waters remains concentrated within state institutions. First Nations participation is typically limited to advisory or consultative roles, even as communities bear the most acute and cumulative impacts of ongoing colonisation, ecological degradation, and accelerating climate risk.

The dialogue considers whether the forthcoming Basin Plan can reposition Aboriginal Nations as political authorities within Basin management. If not, what institutional transformations are required for First Nations to exercise equal decision-making power at the Basin scale?

Relevant CRC Resources

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Session four: Managing the Basin adaptively in the face of a changing climate

Featured panellists: Chair Prof. Ariella Helfgott (One Basin CRC), Prof. Katherine Daniell (ANU), Dr Ashley Kingsborough (SA Water), Prof. Seth Westra (One Basin CRC)

The Murray-Darling Basin Plan Review is open for submissions until 1 May 2026. This panel asks a question that sits at the heart of that review: do we have the governance architecture, the institutional design, and the decision-making frameworks to actually respond to what the science is telling us about climate change in the Basin?

The Basin Plan was built on the assumption that we could characterise climate variability as a known probability distribution and plan accordingly. That assumption is now under serious pressure. The climate is not just producing different outcomes from the same distribution. The distribution itself is changing. That is a fundamentally different kind of problem, and it demands fundamentally different approaches to planning, to risk, and to institutional design.

This panel brings together a hydrologist and water systems researcher who will speak to what a genuinely risk-informed planning framework requires; a governance and cybernetics scholar who will address what our institutions need to look like if they are to learn and adapt under complexity; and a water utility practitioner who will translate all of it into what these questions mean when you are the person making billion-dollar infrastructure decisions for a city at the end of the system. The conversation will move from the epistemic to the practical: from how we characterise uncertainty, to how we govern under it, to what it actually means on the ground.

Relevant CRC Resources

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Session five: Scaling water banking in aquifers

Featured panellists: Chair Prof. Seth Westra (One Basin CRC), Yvette Colton (Colton Consulting), Simone Stewart (SA Department of Environment and Water), Dr Andrew Ross (ANU).

Water banking is a proven but under utilised tool, with Murray–Darling Basin water management historically focused on surface water despite the significant and viable role groundwater can play in strengthening system resilience.

The panel examine how water banking could contribute to long-term water security and environmental recovery in the Murray-Darling Basin, particularly in the context of climate variability and increasing system constraints. Drawing on the One Basin CRC Water Banking project and draft White Paper, the discussion explores practical use cases and value propositions for water banking from local to Basin-wide scales.

Panellists consider state regulatory barriers and opportunities, lessons from more progressive jurisdictional approaches, and risk management and economic implications. It focuses on both short and long-term steps, from funding targeted pilot projects through to enabling larger, multi-outcome infrastructure, governance reform, policy settings and investment pathways.

Relevant CRC Resources

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Session six: Addressing water quality threats

Featured panellists: Chair Prof. Mike Stewardson, Prof. Andrew Western (Uni Melb), Prof. David Hamilton (Griffith University), Judy Hagan (DEECA)

Water quality is emerging as one of the most complex and pressing challenges facing the Murray–Darling Basin. From nutrient loads and algal blooms to complex chemical mixtures and the impacts of a warmer, more variable climate, the risks to ecosystems, communities and irrigation industries are growing.

This online panel will bring together leading water quality experts to examine the current water quality threats across the Basin and the critical knowledge gaps that limit effective action. What do we know — and what don’t we know — about the sources, pathways and cumulative impacts of contaminants? How well aligned are monitoring systems, regulatory settings and investment programs?

The discussion will focus on what is needed now to build long-term capability: coordinated planning, targeted research, better data integration, and stronger alignment between local, regional and Basin-scale efforts. Join us for a forward-looking conversation about how to put in place the knowledge, partnerships and institutional readiness required to take meaningful action on water quality in the years ahead.

Relevant CRC Resources

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Session seven: Building a powerful research and innovation system

Featured panellists: Chair Prof. Mike Stewardson, Dr Kate Holland (CSIRO), Jody Swirepik (Goyder Water Research Institute), Dr Matthew Coleman (MDBA), Prof Troy Meston (One Basin CRC), Prof Seth Westra (One Basin CRC)

As the Basin Plan Review gathers momentum, attention is turning not only to policy settings, but to the systems that will enable the Murray–Darling Basin to adapt and thrive in a drier, more variable future. What kind of research, innovation and adaptation system does the Basin need over the next decade? How do we better connect western researcher, First Nations knowledge, community expertise, government policy reform, industry innovation and on-ground practice?

This online panel brings together leaders from different backgrounds to explore how we can move beyond project-by-project R&D toward a more integrated, mission-driven system. The discussion examines the capabilities, partnerships, investment models and governance settings required to scale solutions across catchments — from water quality and environmental outcomes to irrigation productivity, decarbonisation and community resilience.

Join us for a forward-looking conversation about how the Basin Plan Review can strengthen not just the rules of water management, but the innovation ecosystem that underpins long-term adaptation and prosperity across the Murray–Darling Basin.

Relevant CRC Resources

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Session eight: Supporting ongoing modernisation of water system operations for multiple benefits

Featured panellists: Chair Prof. Seth Westra, Dr Serena Hamilton (ANU), Prof Andrew Western (Melbourne University), Andrew Reynolds (GHD pty LTD)

As climate variability increases and water reliability declines, there is growing pressure to achieve more value from each drop of water. This session explores how multiple benefits can be achieved through more effective and coordinated water delivery operations, and the role of the Basin Plan in shaping what is and isn’t possible. While the Basin Plan has driven major reforms in water recovery, system constraints remain that hinder how water systems operations can support better outcomes for the Basin communities and ecosystems. Drawing on emerging research and on-the-ground experience, the panellists will unpack some of the challenges and opportunities in water systems operations in delivering environmental, cultural, social and economic co-benefits.

Relevant CRC Resources

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Other Resources

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For up-to-date information about the Basin Plan Review, visit the Murray–Darling Basin Authority website. Helpful links about the Basin Plan Review are highlighted below.