Andrew McConville's address to River Reflections 2024

Good morning.

I would like to begin by acknowledging that we meet today on the traditional lands of the Wiradjuri people and I pay my respects to their Elders past, and present and acknowledge First Nations people from across the Murray–Darling Basin and their ongoing and deep connection to the lands and waters for more than 60,000 years. I extend that respect to all First Nations people here in the room today.

And I love Darren’s comments about leaving things in a better way then we found it. In fact, if you open the cover of the Basin Plan, the piece of legislation and regulation, it talks about exactly that philosophy.

Thank you for joining River Reflections 2024, the annual conference of the Murray–Darling Basin Authority.

It’s great to be here with you and talk about being put in a difficult space. I am following that magnificent welcome to country from Darren. We then heard from Tim Jarvis and I'll reflect on Tim in a minute and now I'm going to be followed by Sir Angus Houston and we all know Angus, so there's track record of leadership of this nation.

I'm sorry that you've got me stuck in the middle of that very esteemed list, but what I want to do is just reflect on some of the ideas of leadership and believe it or not, Tim and I had a brief conversation last Friday and that was really it. But there's a lot of what Tim said that I hope you can find in some of what I'm about to say. The first thing I want to reflect on is what Tim mentioned about humility.

As some of you may know I live in Brisbane and commute back and forth to Canberra and so I spend a fair bit of time driving and flying and I happened to be driving back to Brisbane one evening and I put on a podcast on a book. The book was called endurance by Alfred Lansing and was written in the 1950s, and it tells the same story that Tim relayed many parts of to you.

The book goes for about 11 hours and I took off from Canberra in the early afternoon and I arrived at my sister's place in Armidale about 10:00 PM at night. and I was that engrossed with the story of courage of Shackleton and just what an incredible, incredible feat of survival, endurance and leadership that I actually sat outside my sister's house for an hour and a half.

When I got there to finish the book, I was so engrossed because it is just an incredible tale and to have someone in this room that has recreated that, I don't think you can underestimate just how much greatness is in the room from what you've heard of Tim and just the incredible feat of leadership, courage and humility and all of the things that Tim talked about and what he had to say to you here today.

So, Tim, I really do sincerely thank you for being with us and pay homage to your incredible leadership, courage and the lessons that you provide to all of us.

I might therefore sound a little bit trite when I do reflect on, I suppose some of my working life.

What I've had the privilege of doing is navigating through some tough topics and complex assignments and that’s something that I like doing in my working life and put it down as working in contested spaces. And nothing is more contested or more complex in my experience than working in water, and it has prompted me to perhaps reflect around how does one actually work in contested spaces, and how does one actually deal with wicked problems? And that is not a responsibility I – or my team at the MDBA– take lightly.

I'm incredibly proud of the way in which the MDBA team has leaned into dealing with the wicked problem of water.

The approach that we take – the MDBA approach – is to try and play a facilitating role to bring voices of the Basin into the room, and including as we progress our work towards the review of the Basin Plan in 2026, and always with an eye to the future, with an eye to our purpose which is Rivers, for generations. Our mission, which is to set a path forward to manage the health and resilience of the Basin.

It's communities, it's industries and the environment against a range of plausible climate futures, some of which you heard from Tim.

And what we are working to do is to identify any unintended consequences. We will identify any unintended consequences, to look for opportunities to simplify the Basin Plan and improve its effectiveness. And we will look to focus on the outcomes we need to achieve, not just for the process achieving them. And we recognise the very important need for diverse views from right across the community, because to crack a wicked problem, or to work in a contested space requires real courage.

It requires courage to invite in different points of view, to harness collective wisdom, and to be prepared to sit with uncertainty and then provide some level of informed judgment. And it is always helpful in that regard to start with some level of ground-truthing about what we’re seeking to achieve – a bit like what Tim said about agreeing on the ultimate goal or the intended outcome. And then engage in a process of working backwards from there to the points where we might agree, and then move forward, addressing the things that get in the way or slow down the progress towards that goal or that outcome, that we share. 

So then, the key starting point to work out what we all have in common. And we all want a healthy basin. We want healthy rivers. We want vibrant communities. We want sustainable industries, and a healthy environment and when we focus on those outcomes and we share that purpose, then we might be able to find some solutions and we will find those solutions together. 

And I think this is what feels different about the Basin Plan Review. And this is underway and the next generation of water policy that I hope is done with you, as opposed to a regulatory framework done to you. And if we can harness the wisdom of Basin communities and all manner of experts that I’ve seen in this room, and I know are joining us online, then it’ll mean that all of us with a stake in healthy catchments and communities – can appreciate that a healthy Basin means different things to different people:

• Everyone is prepared to hold real conversations and actually hear each other out.
• Everyone will have the courage to perhaps make a couple of compromises as well.

And from where I sit at the MDBA, it means knowing that NOT everyone is going to like you or what they’re hearing. But I’m honestly ok with that because this isn’t going to get any easier. And so we've got to be prepared to recognise there will be times when we don't agree.

But I ask, in turn, that all of you, the communities of the Basin, will take a collective responsibility to work with us in the national interest on this incredible project, to build a level of consensus on what we do to share water on one of the driest inhabited continents in the world.

And I ask that we all be driven by the same sorts of values and same sense of purpose that we are trying to be driven at the MDBA because together we can then realise outcomes that are better together than what we can achieve individually.

Because what we do now through the Basin Plan Review will impact our capacity to manage our rivers for generations. And it's worth reflecting a little bit on those couple of words on rivers for generations because they tell you a lot about the Murray-Darling Basin Authority and the journey that we're on that why we were created and what we do and what we need to preserve and to protect.

And it is a real privilege, and it’s a real sense of determination - and probably with a bit of courage - that we work really hard to try to deliver on that purpose of river for generations to protect and manage Australia’s largest and most complex river system. Let me reflect on where we’ve come from over the last 12 months when Sir Angus launched the Basin Plan review in Narrabri.

So we've set out and we've established the programs needed to support a review of this scale, of this complexity and level of importance, and there are more than 20 individual streams of work including 5 really important science programs:

• the Murray-Darling Basin Sustainable Yields study, 
• the Sustainable Rivers Audit, 
• the Basin Condition Monitoring Program 
• the Integrated River Modelling Uplift Program, and
• the Murray-Darling Water and Environment Research Program.

So with an investment of almost $100 million into science of the Basin, collectively that body of work will be one of the most comprehensive and intricate Basin scale assessments ever undertaken about water resources and of the social, economic and environmental condition of the Basin.

And as we continue to push those science programs forward, we are committed to gathering and sharing the best available evidence to help inform the decisions we will make as part of the Basin Plan Review. And we continue to work really hard to be in community with the many people from many different backgrounds from towns, from cities, from farms, from environments, to better understand and appreciate the challenges that you face, and the aspirations that you hold.

And what I know is here one of the areas where we've heard a lot from community is the area of constraints and relaxing constraints. And we're in the process of developing a constraints relaxation implementation roadmap and we're required to do that under legislation by the end of the year and the roadmap's not about rolling out the projects themselves or getting into the detail that will still sit with the states.

But what we’re looking to do is to try and accelerate some of the work towards 2026 and make some recommendations around what arrangements can help to accelerate those projects and what it might look like for Ministers to consider at the end of the year.  And each state government has continued to work on their part of the process, but what we’re trying to do is create a collective view of how we can move forward with constraints and certainty. The views of the community will help shape our thinking in that regard.

And we want to be transparent in the way in which we do that and shortly you will hear from our Chair, Sir Angus Houston who will talk about our commitment to present our early insights as an Authority on our approach to delivering better outcomes for the Basin under the Basin Plan Review. 

And those thoughts in the Early Insights Paper will point to how we might build on the successes and learn from the mistakes that we’ve made thus far with the Basin Plan, as we prepare the Basin Plan Review. And it’s a really complex task, and the MDBA is up to the task and clear-eyed about the scale of the challenge ahead.

We’ll be working hard to identify any unintended consequences of the Basin Plan whose direction was set over a decade ago and in response to the catastrophic millennium drought.

And you know, I think sometimes we can double down and complain about the Basin Plan, it wasn’t this, or it wasn’t that. But as I have said to my folk, sometimes it’s very hard to look at the horizon when your feet are on fire, and our feet were on fire. And so we have a Basin Plan that is not perfect. And there is still a way to go, but it is something that we can work with to deliver better outcomes as we go forward.

We are going to identify where changes need to be made to the Water Act 2007 and Murray-Darling Basin Agreement to deliver better outcomes, and it won’t be easy. But in fact, if we do the job properly, it cannot be easy. And I think the picture of what success looks like – will change over the course of the next couple of years as we test, refine and consider Basin management together and provide more definition to the challenges that lie ahead.

There will be tough decisions made, but progress cannot be made if you’re not prepared to make a tough decision or two. And in thinking about it, it is 2 years today since I started at the Murray-Darling Basin Authority and when I was appointed to the role at the end of the previous government was Minister Keith Pitt.

And when I was appointed, I knew I was on to something interesting because everyone rang me up and said ‘mate, congratulations.’ And then they took a big breath. I thought; what is this all about? So I rang Keith and I said, Minister, what does success in this role look like to you?  And he said to me, my friend, if everyone disagrees with you and hates you in equal measure by the time you have finished, you have done a good job.

And that I think sums up some of the leadership challenges. We are not here to win a popularity contest. We are not here to take the easy options. We are here to make hard decisions about something that really matters, and we take our leadership very, very seriously in how we try and manage and safeguard this important national resource. And we do know that not everyone will agree with us, but that is ok. And we've got to remember that reflecting on what Tim said, the Basin isn't where it is because of what the next generation might do, but because of what we and previous generations have done.

Some perspectives on how to share water overlap. Some of them will intersect, but there will also be genuine points of difference. And our take is to facilitate the bringing together of those perspectives. It is the priority for me and the MDBA team, and this notion of being in community is really important.

It is about how we bring together the building blocks of an evolved Basin Plan and how we bring energy to perhaps new ways to engage that we haven’t done so in the past.  And certainly, I think we have started that journey. We have started to establish new ways of supporting conversations about the issues in the Basin and bringing together different groups of people from across the Basin.

And you know, the MDBA is steadfast in our commitment to listen, learn and communicate not just the decisions, because as Tim referenced, you get better outcomes when we have the courage to facilitate the tough conversations and bring people on that journey, certainly in the year ahead.

In the year ahead, we will increase our Regional Engagement footprint as we work towards consulting across Basin communities. It is my intent at the MDBA to increase our regional presence, regional footprint, if you like.

As we work to increase our consultation across the Basin, we continue to test our thinking and share the evidence that we have and knowing that not everyone agrees, but I can assure you and can give you my absolute commitment that the process will be transparent and the process will be fair because it's worth thinking a little bit about what's at stake. 

Millions of people rely on:

• the 8,400 irrigated agriculture businesses
• farm output worth more than $30 Billion each year
• and a tourism industry worth $15 Billion each year

Water from the 23 rivers feeds life into environmental sites, wetlands, farms, and towns that span more than one million square kilometers.

And I do think that at times, we get a little bit hard on ourselves.  We need only to look abroad to see what can go wrong if we don’t get this right now. 

Last year, if you were with us in Narrabri, you would have heard from Professor Poff, about the dire state of the mighty Colorado.   If a river doesn’t flow, if it doesn’t connect environments and communities, if it doesn’t connect generations... it’s not really a river. It’s not something for future generations.

At the MDBA we have been on a bit of a journey over the last couple of years to redefine our purpose and our values and we have collectively embraced that to try and build the culture that is strong and uniquely ours.

• We call that the MDBA way and let me just reflect on what that means for the Basin Plan Review.
• We acknowledge we don’t have all the answers. 
• We're committed to being open, transparent and honest. 
• We're comfortable being in the unknown.
• We're going to let ourselves sit with the tension for long enough to allow the answers to emerge.

The answers won’t necessarily come from the MDBA, but from the contributions, the challenges and collaboration of others. It will come from the likes of you here in this room and you online, and I think that one of the things that the MDBA has is we're pretty uniquely placed to be able to do this.

And it's what I call soft leadership and I see our role to be a soft leader in the Basin and we have the backing of the State Governments to do a Review to support a much broader water reform agenda, and at the MDBA we're a little bit privileged because we have that whole basin view where we're bringing together an extensive program of science and knowledge.

We have deep experiences, with more than 125 PHD’s in the MDBA. It is an organization of very smart, very passionate, very committed people. And we are working hard to build trust, or rebuilt trust in some circumstances, and we’re fiercely independent in the views that we bring forward.

The soft Leadership doesn’t mean easy leadership, and it often means having the courage to risk failure.  And I just want to give you an example of what that can look like, and how in risking failure you can actually deliver success. So just recently we held a Basin leadership summit in Sydney and there were a lot of naysayers when we proposed this idea. Why would you be doing that? That’s not the way we do things in the public service. That’s not the way we do things in the Basin. That is not the role of the MDBA.

A lot of people said we shouldn’t do that, but the process of bringing so many leaders across the Basin together was the purpose. It was an opportunity to set aside some of the antagonism and polarisation of views around what it means to achieve a healthy Basin, sustainable industries, and healthy communities.

And there was a really great process to ensure we had an open, constructive, and collaborative conversation that reflected the diversity of views, not shied away from them. And for us it was a good demonstration of how we are continuing to adapt and evolve the way we engage with people to find agreement on how we can work together to progress and achieve a healthy Basin and communities. And there was a really great process to ensure that we had an open, constructive and collaborative conversation that reflected the diversity of views and didn't shy away from those views.

For us, I think it was a really good demonstration of how we're continuing to adapt and evolve the way we engage at the MDBA to find how we can work together to progress that notion of a healthy basin and healthy communities and a process and a way in which we could agree where we could but acknowledge where we don't.

There were about 125 people from across the Basin in the room for two days, and many of you are here today. It really was an exercise in breaking down some barriers, letting go of some of those preconceived notions about what the future of the Basin might look like, and learning to listen to others and collaborate a bit more deeply. And I think one of the things to take away from that summit was it felt different.

It was a safe space to bring forward some challenges to the MDBA, to governments and indeed the community on how we might move forward together to achieve Rivers, for generations. And it was really quite something to see First Nations people, industry, agriculture, environment, science and community leaders all leaning in together. There are several thousand years of experience in the room, and yet several thousand years of experience and people still found the space to start to think differently.

And my takeaway was that there is enormous goodwill in the Basin. Everyone wants to achieve better outcomes for the Basin and that in fact unites us more than it divides us.

Now we have more to do and a way to go, but the Summit was a really good first outing and it's my commitment to all of you that we will do that several times more between now and the end of 2026 to keep informing the review and making sure that we get input from people across the Basin.

I want to reinforce to all of you here and online that we are determined to build on that facilitating role and keep bringing the collective voices of the Basin into the room as we progress our work towards the Basin Plan Review in 2026. And we’ve got other mechanisms too.

We’ve got the Basin Community Committee, we’ve got regional community forums, we’ve got our regional engagement officers, those fantastic people out in the region that are your entry into our organisation.

But we are not wedded to just the MDBA way of doing things. This is about collective feedback, collective participation.  

• Tell us what you think. 
• Tell us how you would like to be consulted. 
• What do you expect of us?
• What else do we need to do? 
• And if what we are doing is not enough - then tell us what else we need to be doing.

Because I think the time for posture is over, and it’s really important and I urge all of you. You have got to be honest with us as we need to be honest with you. Be courageous. Bring some energy to the conversation. Put in the work to come to the table with a positive contribution.

It is really easy to stand out there and throw rocks, but it is much harder to learn to pick up the rocks and build a house, and that is what I urge all of you to start to do with us.  And that is going to be a hard bargain to strike at all times. And I get ‘that is ok’, and not everyone will get everything they want, but I think everyone will share a really important middle path to try and find some level of balance and what it means to build healthy rivers and healthy communities.

Consultation does not mean compliance. It means that we consider the different viewpoints and chart a way forward. It means making hard decisions where not everyone is going to be happy. But it is also about why decisions have been made and to me, that is the essence of leadership and I’m very determined that we remain bold in our purpose, that we continue to push hard to achieve rivers for generations, and we’re certainly prepared to try different things. And we’re prepared to try different ways of facilitating Basin communities coming together to find areas of agreement on how to share them in a way that is just and fair.

I want you to work with us. Because we all share responsibility for how we lead for the sake of the Basin, for the sake of the future, for the sake of Rivers, for generations.

So best wishes. 

Good luck and thank you.

END