strategy to take into consideration the new social and economic information at a community level in catchments where further buyback may be required, the water recovery strategy should target locations, classes and volumes of water that have the least negative social and economic impacts buyback in highly vulnerable communities should be minimised the hierarchy set out in HN2 is properly resourced and
HN 4 NBAC recommends that further investment in structural adjustment be targeted to communities that have been identified as impacted by water recovery by the social and economic work, focusing on: assistance for individuals to re-skill, relocate and find new work assistance for businesses to build capacity and diversify low interest loans to restructure and adapt exit strategies and relocation costs Some communities that have received assistance under the MBD regional economic development program have not been and will not be affected by water recovery: others have much greater needs. Each community has a different social and economic profile that dictates the most effective assistance for it. Communities are best placed to advise what sort of assistance they need: ‘one size fits all’ programs do not work. Academic research and best practice indicate that small business is the principal driver of regional economies. In some affected communities, leaving is the best option, is only viable if assistance is available. HN5 NBAC recommends that MDBA facilitates and supports permanent Toolkit Implementation Committees (TICs) with community and government representation in each catchment in the Northern Basin. The establishment of a Northern Basin Plan Implementation Oversight Committee with community representation for liaising with all government jurisdictions is also recommended The question most asked at local meetings is: why is the Basin Plan necessary and what is it trying to achieve? Effective implementation of Toolkit measures is best achieved by tapping into knowledge and experience. TICs would be best placed to deal with operational issues involving tradeoffs. An Oversight Committee could regularly assess the performance of the Plan in the Northern Basin and give policy advice based on adaptive management.
HN10 NBAC recommends that: the NSW floodplain harvesting policy implementation process be completed as soon as possible so that reliable information can be incorporated in the modelling. MDBA improves estimates of baseline diversion limits (BDLs) and corrects any errors identified. Communities need to understand BDLs as the starting point for the Basin Plan It would be controversial if this is done after the SDLs are set and would look like MDBA is setting SDLs without all the relevant information. Revised BDLs are required as it is not helpful for community confidence for these numbers to be revised again after the NBR process is complete. The investigations leading to the volumetric allocation of floodplain harvesting will allow the correct BDLs to be used in setting SDLs. HN11 NBAC recommends that MDBA a whole-of-government integrated monitoring, evaluation, reporting and implementation (MERI) framework that includes monitoring and evaluation (M&E) that is sufficiently detailed and continuous at the catchment level to measure whether the objectives of the Basin plan are being achieved. Current M&E in the Northern Basin is fragmented, hit and miss, and not shared effectively between different agencies. MDBA is leading the management through the Basin Plan and is therefore the appropriate agency to co-ordinate M&E in the future. There are distinct M&E gaps at the catchment level that must be addressed. HIGH PRIORITY, DO SOON (HS) RECOMMENDATIONS Recommendation Rationale