The basin plan was developed to ensure water could be sustainably shared between the people who use it and the environment.
The authority is required to do a review of the plan 10 years after it was implemented.
The discussion paper calls for feedback before the May 1 deadline.
Speaking to the media this week, MDBA chief executive Andrew McConville said the authority would be visiting basin communities over the next few months.
Asked whether the progress in the plan was disappointing in the 14 years since the plan was enacted, Mr McConville said: “We are making progress but there is certainly more to do.”
Mr McConville acknowledged that simply delivering more environmental water into the river systems (the ‘just add more water’ approach) was not enough, and there was a need to maximise the value of water already recovered.
The discussion paper released this week noted: “Our initial assessment is that more targeted solutions to address the broader set of drivers are needed to achieve environmental outcomes.”
Mr McConville expressed disappointment at the rate of progress in addressing constraints to flows in the Murray-Darling system.
On questions of whether the MDBA was looking at compulsory acquisitions of lower-lying private land to facilitate over-bank flows, he said that was a matter for the states.
Mr McConville has emphasised that the contents of the discussion paper are not decisions but are designed to stimulate feedback to guide the future direction of the plan.
“Through the discussion paper, the authority has explored progress that has been made to date and considered some of the issues and challenges for the basin as we look forward over the next decade,” he said.
Mr McConville said the intention was for the discussion paper to help inform communities that depended on a healthy, working basin to then make submissions to the review.
“The basin plan has delivered real benefits, and we are starting to see improvements in some of the basin’s most important rivers and wetlands,” he said.
“But the evidence is also clear that climate change, ageing infrastructure, disconnected floodplains, declining native fish and poor water quality mean we need to do some things differently.
“Looking ahead we need a plan that supports greater adaptation to a changing climate.”
At the conclusion of the public consultation period, the submissions received will help inform the authority as it develops the review, which is to be finalised and delivered to the Federal Government before the end of the year.
A copy of the discussion paper can be downloaded from the MDBA website: mdba.gov.au/publications-and-data/publications/2026-basin-plan-review-discussion-paper
National Irrigators’ Council chief executive Zara Lowien said the discussion paper should serve as an important wake-up call to the Federal Government, which she said continued to use old tools for today’s challenges.
“The paper found that most sustainable diversion limits are meeting environmental outcomes and further investigation would be needed in some areas to consider the complexity of environmental drivers other than water flows — again signalling the need for a new approach, beyond 'just adding water' for the basin,” Ms Lowien said.
“It has become increasingly clear throughout basin plan implementation that solutions to improve our rivers whilst maintaining viable irrigation-water dependent communities, are more complex than assumed, over a decade ago.
“Any calls for more water from farmers now, ignores the lessons of the past 14 years of implementation, and the growing evidence of what the basin now needs.”
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