On 31 August 2026, Justice Faulkner delivered judgment in Murray-Darling Basin Authority (MDBA) class action in Doyle’s Farm Produce Pty Ltd v Murray-Darling Basin Authority [2026] NSWSC 1036. The proceeding was brought by the plaintiffs on behalf of group members in New South Wales and Victoria who sought damages in negligence for water releases made by the MDBA during the 2017/2018 and 2018/2019 water years which resulted in overbank transfers from Yarrawonga Weir through the adjacent Barmah-Millewa forest.

Justice Faulkner dismissed the proceeding on the basis that the MDBA did not owe a duty of care to group members and also found no breaches in respect of the 2017/2018 and 2018/2019 water years. His Honour further found that the plaintiffs’ case on causation failed for the 2018/2019 water year (in respect of the 2017/2018 water year, the MDBA accepted that allocations would have been higher for NSW general security entitlement holders in the event of breach).

The judgment is a significant authority on the law of negligence as it relates to public authorities. Justice Faulkner held there was no support in the Water Act 2007 (Cth) and other aspects of the regulatory framework for the existence of a relationship between the plaintiffs and the MDBA sufficient to establish a common law duty of care to avoid pure economic loss (at [330]). His Honour relevantly stated that such a duty of care would be “incongruous with the statutory framework which has established the [MDBA] and in which it performs its functions”, including because it would “distort the focus of the statutory framework away from the interests of the States and to the economic interests of one particular class of users … located in one particular part of the Murray-Darling Basin” (at [382]).

Sophie Callan SC, Thomas Prince SC, Harry Rogers and Anthony Hall appeared for the MDBA. They were instructed by Ashurst.

A link to the full judgement can be found here: https://lnkd.in/gjvUGVZt