Partnerships and engagement

The Basin’s river system is important to many people for many reasons. While we all rely on the river system to deliver water to our towns, there are also many people who have businesses that depend on good quality water being available in the rivers, including recreational and tourism operators, irrigators, boaters and anglers.

With so many people relying on this precious resource for their livelihoods as well as their lifestyle, it is important that we include them in the work we do in the Basin so we can understand their concerns, interests and priorities, and for them to have input in the decisions that will affect them. Our job includes making important decisions about the Basin’s water, so we work with others to develop ideas and solutions. Our aim is for communities to be informed, have opportunities to express their views, and understand how their views have been considered. If you have any suggestions on how we can do this better, please email engagement@mdba.gov.au

Stakeholders and partners

Our stakeholders and partners are people who have an interest in the implementation and outcomes of the Basin Plan and the activities of the MDBA more generally.

There are more than 1,000 stakeholder groups who can be broadly grouped as follows:

• people living in the Basin and the broader Australian community
• industry (including agriculture), conservation, recreation and community groups
• river operators
• local governments
• Aboriginal people
• MDBA advisory committees
• state government agencies and departments
• commonwealth government agencies and departments
• science and research communities
• the international community.

Our objectives

• To stay connected with people living and working in the Basin to gain the full range of perspectives.
• To increase people’s understanding of the Basin Plan issues and the Basin Plan implementation process and outcomes.
• To create opportunities for people to provide their local knowledge to inform our work.
• To increase people’s confidence in our planning and engagement processes by following our engagement principles.
• To thoroughly consider, acknowledge and value people’s contributions.

Our principles

Our approach to stakeholder engagement is guided by the following principles. We ensure our stakeholder engagement is:

• Transparent – we make clear our purpose and goals around what is negotiable and what isn’t.
• Inclusive and targeted – we seek to engage with individuals and organisations that represent the diversity of those impacted and involved in our work. We seek to understand aboriginal interests in water and to build the capacity of aboriginal peoples to participate in water management.
• Appropriate and adaptive – we use levels and methods of engagement that suit the group being consulted and our engagement approach is adaptive to feedback.
• Accessible and innovative – we provide clear, accessible and comprehensive information.
• Respectful – we conduct engagement activities in a manner that fosters mutual respect and trust by listening to feedback and responding appropriately. We collect and store information and treat comments and submissions in accordance with the Privacy Act 1988 (Commonwealth).
• Supportive – we are sensitive to how the changes resulting from the Basin Plan impact individuals.