e-News Edition #1

Date: 28-Oct-2022

Hot Topics

1. CEO Introduction

2. AGM and Board News

3. Staff movements at Irrigation Australia

4. Get into BBL Tipping!

5. Federal Budget Summary

Other News

6. Energy Tools Available

7. Irrigation News Articles

8. Upcoming Training and Events

1. CEO Introduction

In my first 6 weeks I have been doing a fair bit of travelling and meeting people and spending a lot of time understanding business processes. Thanks to all who've been so welcoming - particularly our Directors and staff.

The biggest activity in the last few weeks has of course been the Conference and Exhibition in Adelaide. Lots of positive feedback from members and international guests as well as some things to learn from for our next national event in Sydney in 2024.

At the time of writing we are still compiling statistics, a wrap up and getting photos and presentations stored for future distribution.

Over the next couple of months leading into Christmas, our focus will be on some catching up on things a little neglected while dealing with the enormity of the Conference. Final refinements to our Customer Management System and how it interacts with other business systems have been front of mind, in addition in the short term there will be a small reduction in the number of training courses we offer while the team focuses on some quality review processes. 

Otherwise see the next item - there have been some changes in our Board and we are looking forward to a strategic session scheduled for early Februaryto set Irrigation Australia's priorities for 2023. Based on discussions to date I expect to see a strong focus on members and improving our value proposition.

There will be future opportunities for feedback on what we do through surveys etc but I'm very keen to hear directly too - please email dave.cameron@irrigation.org.au with your ideas.

Dave Cameron

2. AGM and Board News

We are pleased to announce the results of our recent Board elections following our AGM on 27 October. Congratulations to successful nominees ad commiserations to those who were not successful this time - the record 19 nominations is a spectacular result.

All renominating Directors were successful in being re-appointed, with Valentina Tripp and Matthew Binder elected to the other two vacant positions.

Simon Treptow has been elected as incoming Board Chair, with Valentina Tripp as Deputy Chair. There were a number of other committee appointments noted in the complete list below.

It is important to acknowledge the enormous contribution and mentorship of outgoing Chair Andrew Ogden in his many years steering the ship. Andrew will continue on for a further year as Director and member of the Governance Committee, at which time his ten-year tenure as Director will end. We extend our thanks to retiring Directors Peter Durand and John Pivac for their years of service in supporting Irrigation Australia and its members.

The Board next meets on 7 December with a further meeting and strategic planning day set down for early February.

Current Irrigation Australia Ltd Board:

Simon Treptow (Chair)

Valentina Tripp (Deputy Chair, Audit and Risk Management Committee)

Andrew Ogden (+ Governance Committee)

Momir Vranes (Chair, IACID)

Peter Brueck (+ Governance Committee, Certification Board)

Colin Bendall (+ Rainwater Harvesting Committee)

Carl Walters (+ Governance Committee, IACID)

Greig Graham (Audit and Risk Management Committee)

Rob Nadebaum (Audit and Risk Management Committee)

Matthew Binder (Director)

3. Staff Movements at Irrigation Australia

Bryan Ward has officially wound up with IAL and is starting to pack for the journey south to Tasmania. He assures us he will be around to offer a bit of advice from time to time and is closing out some of our web improvement tasks remotely.

Chris Delphin has formally submitted her resignation as Company Secretary/ Business Administration Manager and her last day will be Friday 25 November.

All IAL staff would like to express their gratitude for the enormous effort Bryan and Chris have put into the business and wish them the best for the future.

Our new Company Secretary/ Business Administration Manager is Naomi Carragher who starts on 14 November.

4. Get into BBL Tipping!

So, the upside of a sports-mad new CEO is that the first thing he said yes to was the suggestion of a member-only footy tipping competition. The down-side is that he commenced too late for footy season so he gets to choose the starting alternative and it's cricket. The Big Bash League starts on 13 December - watch this space for how you can enter either the tipping or fantasy league competition - we're still deciding.

5. Federal Budget Summary

Last week’s budget included a number of announcements of potential interest to members. This is not a comprehensive summary but points to potential funding opportunities as well as key announcements impacting water availability and related matters. 

• $20.3M towards a Carbon farming outreach program to encourage low emission technologies and practices

• $62.6M towards energy efficient equipment upgrades for small to medium enterprises

• National Water Grid fund savings including
  • Not proceeding with Hells Gate Dam ($5.4B saving)
  • Deferring funding for the Dungowan Dam and Pipeline, Emu Swamp Dam and Pipeline, Hughenden Irrigation Scheme and Wyangala Wall Raising projects ($899.5M)
  • Returning $173.5M from unallocated and uncontracted funding

• National Water Grid fund expenditures including
  • $600M Paradise Dam, $107.5M for Cairns water security, $100M Tasmanian Pipeline to prosperity, $32M Central Queensland and Burdekin water infrastructure options, $12.5M Lower Burdekin groundwater improvement, water efficiency, $8M Big Rocks Weir, $3.5M for Mount Morgan

• Murray Darling Basin
  • “Initial funding towards meeting environmental water targets under the Murray-Darling Basin Plan” without a specified amount
  • $29M towards improvements to metering and monitoring water use and increasing regulatory compliance
  • $22.9M to update the science for water management in the Basin ahead of the statutory Plan review in 2026
  • An unspecified investment towards “improving the transparency and integrity of water markets”

• Other in “Water For Australia Plan”
  • $2.1M legal support to deliver national water reform + $0.5M to scope the National Water Commission – essentially confirming the intent to deliver the Commission.

The funding towards meeting environmental water targets has drawn significant attention – refer to the release from the National Irrigators Council.

6. Energy Tools Available

We're starting to try to gather more useful information for members to store on the web site and a recent contribution has been two spreadsheet tools developed collaboratively by representatives of Agriculture Victoria, the Goulburn Broken Catchment Management Authority, NSW Department of Primary Industries and Sapphire Irrigation Consulting for the benefit of all irrigation industry users.

The Pivot Irrigator Energy Tool provides a guide to understanding if the energy use of your irrigation system is optimal, based on the total head, energy source (diesel or electric), and cost, area irrigated and your irrigation goals.

The Travelling Irrigator Tool - same intent, different gear.

7. Irrigation News Articles

Need a bit of light industry reading over lunch? Our news page of the main web site includes collated articles of interest from ABC News and other sites - we'll endeavor to update weekly.

8. Training and Events

Check out our Training and Events calendars. 

Not a lot of new events coming up as we head towards Christmas - some Waterwise Garden Workshops have just been delivered in Perth and there is an upcoming Christmas breakfast in Melbourne later in November. All of these are under review with a hope to be able to deliver more member activities across Australia in 2023.

There are still training courses with places available in Moree, Adelaide, Bibra Lake, Griffith, Melbourne, Goondiwindi and at our Murrarie head office in Brisbane and of course online in the next couple of months.

Till next time, best wishes.......