Murray River Group of Councils – MRGC meets with Minister Watt

Published on 11 September 2025

A delegation from the Murray River Group of Councils (MRGC) led by Chair, Loddon Shire Mayor Dan Straub, was delighted to meet with Federal Water Minister, the Hon Murray Watt MP, in Canberra last Wednesday 3 September.

The Chair highlighted the vital role that water plays in sustaining northern Victorian communities.

“Across the Murray River Group of Councils region, agriculture and food manufacturing underpin everything," Cr Straub said.

"Our region produces more than $8.3 billion in food every year, and around 16,000 local jobs are tied directly to this.

“Our councils and communities are on the frontline of the Basin Plan’s impacts and it is vital that our voices are heard, that’s why we came to Canberra.

“We really appreciate the Minister’s willingness to meet with us and hear the concerns of our communities and our industries and to engage with our ideas for collaborative and pragmatic solutions.

“The meeting was positive and the discussion open which was welcome.

“We were able to tell of our belief that the Basin Plan is not delivering for our region.

“We don’t support buy backs, and especially the Government’s current, nonstrategic programs of open market water purchases as these put our irrigation districts and our farmers at risk.

“We were happy to hear from Minister Watt that he wants to minimise the negative impacts on our communities while seeing the Basin Plan delivered."

MRGC emphasised to the Minister the importance of genuine investment to offset the negative impacts of the Basin Plan.

“We don’t want trinkets or grant programs,” Cr Straub said.

“We need meaningful funding that unlocks investment to keep jobs in our region and creates new economic activity that bring new permanent jobs to our communities.”

“The other key principle that MRGC has that we made clear to the Minister is that new jobs need to be created in the communities where jobs are being lost – moving jobs to regional centres won’t help our towns.

“We are all committed to protecting our rivers, wetlands and floodplains but achieving that doesn’t have to come at the cost of our towns, farms and families. Better environmental outcomes are possible if they are pursued in partnership with the communities who live in the basin.”

“We thank Minister Watt for hearing us and look forward to working constructively with him and his Department.”