Review of the MDBA River Murray Operations costs

The MDBA, on behalf of the Commonwealth and governments of New South Wales, Victoria and South Australia are responsible for overseeing River Murray Operations, which includes programs to operate the River Murray and manage its assets.

Over recent years there has been concerns raised by the water users and the Governments of the Joint Venture on the costs associated with MDBA River Murray Operations, which implements these programs to manage the sharing of water along the River Murray.

The Australian Government, in September 2019, committed to undertake triennial reviews of the River Murray Operations costs to provide greater transparency and assurance to water users and the Joint Venture of Governments.

The inaugural review was undertaken finding that overall the costs of the River Murray Operations program were reasonable. Overall 10 recommendations were made for the Joint Venture Governments to consider in the following themes:

• improvement management of River Murray Operations costs
• ongoing benchmarking
• future cost reviews.