The Murray Darling Association is the peak body for local government in the Murray-Darling Basin.
And the Region 2 committee covers councils across the Goulburn, Murray and Riverina regions.
Cr Dobson said one of his first aims would be to increase representation on the committee, so it had the strongest voice possible with the Murray-Darling Basin Authority and policy makers.
Currently only five of the 14 councils are members.
“It is a bad look, it’s got to be improved” Cr Dobson said.
“Because if we're going to go to the government or we're going to go to the MDBA, they say ‘well, who are you representing?’
“For the MDA to be relevant, it has got to have the high level backing of the member councils.”
Cr Dobson and fellow City of Greater Shepparton councillor Greg James (an independent member of the MDA) successfully moved a motion in 2021 for the organisation to foster greater First Nations involvement in water policy.
Cr Dobson hoped to encourage Traditional Owner organisations in the region to join the committee.
“First Nations are an integral part of the river system and it is only right that they should be involved,” he said.
Cr Dobson said while the focus was on secure water supply, irrigation and environmental flows, there also needed to be a focus on First Nations land management and values, which he described as the “heart and soul” of what our river systems represented.
Cr Dobson said he would continue to highlight issues across the basin and the impacts of policy that were not front of mind for people in Canberra.
“We (the 12 regional committees) are the voice of the people, rather than the voice of the politicians or the voice of the bureaucrats,” he said.
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