The initial action taken in November 1985 was to create the Murray-Darling Ministerial Council, which comprised Ministers holding land, water and environmental portfolios in the Commonwealth and each partner State and Territory Government. One of the first actions of the Council was the production of the Murray-Darling Basin Environmental Resources Study (1987), which highlighted the extent of environmental degradation. To support the Council, the Murray-Darling Basin Commission (MDBC) was established in January 1988, under the Murray-Darling Basin Agreement. The Commission is the intergovernmental body responsible for managing the water of the River Murray and lower Darling River, advising on policies and programmes for the management of the Murray-Darling Basin’s environmental resources and overseeing the implementation of policies and programmes aimed to help achieve their sustainable use.
The Commissions charter requires it to:
- Efficiently manage and equitably distribute River Murray water resources
- Protect and improve the water quality of the River Murray and its tributaries
- Advise the Murray-Darling Ministerial Council on water, land and environmental management in the Basin.
The Murray-Darling Basin Ministerial Council, the Murray-Darling Basin Commission and Community Advisory Committee provide a forum for reconciling the respective interests of the partner governments and communities in setting priorities for long-term investments in natural resource management within the Basin. There is now, through this process, a very strong focus on integrated support for on-ground action within catchments. The Commission is directly involved in a range of activities including:
- The management of the River Murray System through shared investment
- Implementing the Salinity & Drainage Strategy (works & measures to reduce salinity in the River Murray, maintenance of a Register of salinity credits & debits, "rules" for determining salinity credits for joint works between governments & debits arising from state activities adding salt to the rivers)
- Piloting interstate water trading (transfer of water allocations)
- Implementing a cap on further diversions of irrigation water from the Murray-Darling system.
Over the period 1990-2000, the framework for action was developed through the following documents:
- The Natural Resources Management Strategy
- Basin Sustainability Plan.
The MDBC has established cross-border arrangements between the States to share water resources through a water trading scheme and increase water use efficiency. The sustainability of the MDBC and its programmes is still dependent on government funding, and will continue to be so, but since its inception, Federal Government support has not waned.