Media Release – 30 November 2023 Restoring our Rivers Bill delivers long-overdue recognition for First Nations, but Government must not defer key unfinished business  MLDRIN welcomes the passage of the Restoring our Rivers Bill through the Senate today, delivering long-overdue recognition and support for Basin First Nations’ water rights. When the Restoring our Rivers Bill...Read More

Media Release 29 November 2023 MLDRIN welcomes an agreement between Independent Senator Lidia Thorpe and the Government today, which will see a $20 million cultural flows planning program delivered in the Murray Darling Basin. This program underpins efforts towards self-determination and water rights for Basin First Nations. An agreement to deliver the funding was reached...Read More

Media Release  13th November 2023 MLDRIN applauds legal practitioners and academics who signed open letter supporting First Nations water rights MLDRIN, a self-determined, First Nation’s owned organization, extends its thanks to the  fifty-plus legal practitioners and academics, including some of the country’s leading barristers’, who signed an open letter to Members of the Federal Parliament...Read More

Media Release 26 October 2023 MLDRIN launches legal challenge against Commonwealth over consultation failures in Murray-Darling Water Resource Plan A confederation of more than 20 Murray-Darling Basin First Nations has launched a legal challenge against Federal Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek’s approval of a Water Resource Plan last year. The NSW Fractured Rock Water Resource Plan...Read More

MLDRIN hopes that the initiative announced by Minister Plibersek and Minister Burney today will not further delay the delivery of a $40 million commitment made to the Nations of the Murray Darling Basin in 2018 for the purchase of cultural and economic water entitlements. You can read the ABC coverage of this announcement and MLDRIN...Read More

MLDRIN welcomes the release of the Victorian Government’s Water is Life Murray Lower Darling Rivers Indigenous Nations (MLDRIN) welcomes the release of the Victorian Government’s “Water is Life: Traditional Owner Access to Water Roadmap.” This policy sets pathways for increasing Traditional Owner self-determination and decision-making in water management. It also fulfils a major Victorian Government...Read More

New report illustrates the scale of water injustice in the Murray Darling Basin As part of NAIDOC Week, MLDRIN has launched an illuminating report that illustrates the current state of water injustice in the Murray Darling Basin, including compelling infographics by Tati Tati artist Brendan Kennedy. View the report here. “Returning water to First Nations...Read More

The Murray Lower Darling Rivers Indigenous Nations (MLDRIN) applauds the appointment of Nari Nari man Rene Woods as the first Indigenous member of the Murray Darling Basin Authority (MDBA) Board. ‘Rene Woods has been an incredibly effective and committed advocate for First Nations water justice, as Chair of MLDRIN since 2016,’ said MLDRIN Acting Chair...Read More

First Nations organisations MLDRIN and NBAN will kick off a thorough and independent assessment of all NSW Water Resource Plans (WRPs) today, fulfilling a key regulatory role spelt out in the Basin Plan. In June, the NSW Government submitted the last of 22 WRPs that it is required to prepare under the Murray Darling Basin...Read More

Media Release: Friday 6th December 2019 Scrapping the Basin Plan could damage cultural values along Australia’s greatest river system and marginalise vulnerable communities, a peak body representing First Nations from the Southern Basin has warned. ‘Campaigns led by irrigators and the NSW National Party to derail the Basin Plan do not represent the interests of...Read More