 Stakeholder EngagementStakeholder engagement is important in developing the Basin Plan. The Murray–Darling Basin Authority (MDBA) is engaging with people to help them understand the Basin Plan development process and to improve the plan itself. We have put a strategy in place to guide our engagement with a broad range of stakeholders during the development of the Basin Plan. You can download a copy of our Stakeholder Engagement Strategy here. Why MDBA is engaging stakeholdersEngaging with stakeholders is an important part of developing the Basin Plan. We believe that through involving a broad range of stakeholders we will achieve a better Basin Plan which people are better able to adapt to and implement. Engagement offers us an opportunity to draw on people's knowledge, and to build support for, and involvement in, the Basin Planning process. The way we engage and the types of activities we use will help to build stakeholder confidence in the engagement process. Engagement will also be essential to implementing and reviewing the Basin Plan and MDBA will refine and extend the strategy to include more activities in the future. In addition to government policy commitments, the Commonwealth Water Act 2007 states that MDBA must consult with the Basin Officials Committee, the Basin states and the Basin Community Committee in preparing the Basin Plan. The Water Act also sets out a detailed public consultation process for the proposed Basin Plan. Identifying our stakeholdersOur stakeholders are groups or individuals who have an interest in the development and implementation of the Basin Plan and the activities of MDBA. In preparing the stakeholder engagement strategy, we identified over 1000 stakeholder groups who can be broadly grouped as follows:
As a part of our stakeholder mapping process we developed charts to help identify existing peak bodies and established communication channels that we can use to share information. You can view these ‘mind maps’ by clicking on the links below. Irrigation and water user groups Conservation and environment groups, and non-government organisations Primary industry and commodity groups Primary Industry and Commodity Groups Crops Primary Industry and Commodity Groups Horticulture Primary Industry and Commodity Groups Meat and Livestock Primary Industry and Commodity Groups Forestry Regional Bodies CMAs NRM Boards Government Departments Agencies Local Government ROCS Water Utilities
Stakeholder engagement objectivesOur objectives are to:
Principles underpinning MDBA's approach to stakeholder engagementOur approach to stakeholder engagement is guided by the following principles upon which we will operate and to which we will be accountable. We are committed to ensure that our stakeholder engagement is:
How MDBA will engage with stakeholdersWe are providing our stakeholders with information about the Basin Plan and its development. We are doing this through presentations, regional community meetings of the Murray–Darling Basin Authority and the Basin Community Committee and one-on-one meetings with stakeholder groups. A variety of additional engagement activities will be held until we have a Basin Plan. These activities include:
The two stages for stakeholder engagementMDBA is scheduled to release a proposed Basin Plan in mid-2010 for public comment and the first Basin Plan in 2011. We have identified two key stages of stakeholder engagement in developing the Basin Plan:
The first phase includes informing the community about the development of the Basin Plan and seeking views on specific issues. This will be done as described in ‘How we will engage with stakeholders'. Stakeholders will have the opportunity to express views on Basin Plan issues at regional meetings of the Murray–Darling Basin Authority and the Basin Community Committee. We have also provided an opportunity for stakeholders to comment on a sustainable diversion limits issues paper in late 2009. The second phase of the engagement process will include a 16-week formal public consultation period. A round of regional community workshops will be held in this phase to provide plenty of opportunities for discussion and questions to help people in developing formal submissions. MDBA recognises there are a number of government agencies consulting with communities on water related issues at the same time. We are aiming to coordinate our activities with them. Monitoring and evaluationMeasuring our performance in stakeholder engagement is important to us. A monitoring and evaluation framework has been developed to assess how well we are meeting our objectives. We have developed criteria to help with our ongoing evaluation and we will be asking stakeholders to provide feedback on our engagement activities to help ensure we are engaging effectively. We will also evaluate our engagement activities mid-term (mid-2010) and following the endorsement of the Basin Plan (mid-2011). We welcome your feedback (see below) to assist in the ongoing evaluation of our engagement activities. The result of continuously evaluating our activities is that some of the activities may change. Feedback, requests for information and comments can be: emailed to engagement@mdba.gov.au or posted to: Murray–Darling Basin Authority GPO Box 1801 Canberra ACT 2601. You can download a copy of our Stakeholder Engagement Strategy here. |
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PROGRAMS