The Victorian Farmers Federation (VFF) welcomes the opportunity to provide comment on the
Commonwealth Have Your Say Process for Delivering the Murray Darling Basin Plan.
The VFF is disappointed with the level of consultation provided by the Commonwealth. Public
submissions are only open for six weeks and no effort was made to meet in the regions with those
affected by the Basin Plan reforms. Rather a tokenistic webinar was held and there was no opportunity for broader rural communities to have a say in this process.
The VFF did participate in the farmer/irrigator webinar and was thoroughly disappointed by the lack of discussion on the negative impacts that the Basin Plan has had on rural and regional communities to date.
The Productivity Commission highlighted five years ago new ideas and changes that had to be made, very few of these occurred. The Commonwealth has arguably undermined the Productivity Commission 2023 review process that was announced on 17 May by announcing its own feedback process. The Productivity Commission, however, is proving far more genuine with its consultation and meeting out in the regions with all stakeholders.