The Principal Adviser is responsible for developing the water market reform roadmap in consultation with Basin states and considering advice from an advisory group of technical experts and water market stakeholder representatives.
Principal Adviser
Daryl Quinlivan
Daryl Quinlivan AO was the Secretary of the Department of Agriculture and Water Resources from 2015 to 2020, responsible for Australian agricultural industries, water resources and animal and plant health, including quarantine. Prior to becoming Secretary of the Department of Agriculture and Water Resources, Mr Quinlivan was Head of Office at the Productivity Commission, deputy secretary in the Department of Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy from 2011 to 2012, and deputy secretary in the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry between 2005 and 2010.
In August 2020, Mr Quinlivan was appointed the NSW Agriculture Commissioner to provide policy advice to the NSW Minister and government on barriers in the planning framework to the future success of agriculture in NSW.
Mr Quinlivan was appointed an Officer of the Order of Australia in the 2021 Australia Day Honours and holds a Bachelor of Arts (Hons) from Monash University, and a Bachelor of Economics from the Australian National University.
Advisory Group
Andrew Stoeckel (ACT)
Andrew Stoeckel is Honorary Professor at the Australian National University’s Centre for Applied Macroeconomic Analysis. He is also Chief Economist at the Centre for Economic and Regional Development, Department of Premier and Cabinet, NSW. He is one of Australia's leading economists and specialises in trade policy analysis and the global macro-economy. From 1981–86 he was the head of the (then) Bureau of Agricultural Economics in Canberra (now Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics and Sciences). Andrew has wide experience in public policy, commercial activities, and environmental issues.
Dave Appels (VIC)
Dave Appels is an economist with Frontier Economics, specialising in natural resource topics. In the water sector this includes impacts of water trading, water market design, and broader socio-economic issues in water management and policy. Dave has extensive knowledge of water markets in the Murray–Darling Basin and recent clients include the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, the Murray–Darling Basin Authority, the Victorian Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning and the former National Water Commission.
Jenny McLeod (NSW)
Jenny McLeod is the Policy & Communication Manager for Coleambally Irrigation Cooperative Limited (CICL), a medium-sized irrigation infrastructure operator in NSW. Mrs McLeod joined CICL in November 2015 and has extensive experience in water policy and management, with a focus on the Murray–Darling Basin. She has family irrigated farming interests in the NSW Murray and is a director of the National Irrigators’ Council and Finley Regional Care.
Mrs McLeod holds a Masters degree in Organisational Communication from Charles Sturt University, a Bachelor of Agricultural Science (Hons) from Melbourne University and is a graduate of the Institute of Company Directors.
Peter Hendy (NSW)
Peter Hendy is currently Chief Executive Officer at Peter Hendy Consulting, a consultancy principally focused on economics and public policy issues. He is also a commissioner at the Commonwealth Grants Commission.
Dr Hendy’s previous roles include Chief Economist in the Prime Minister’s Office, Member of Parliament, Assistant Minister for Finance, Assistant Minister for Productivity and Assistant Cabinet Secretary in the Australian Government. He was Chief Executive of the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry between 2002 and 2008 and has a long career in both the private and public sectors, including the areas of defence, international trade, treasury, education, and industrial relations.
Phil Grahame (NSW/VIC)
Phil Grahame is the General Manager of Ruralco Water, a water market intermediary that offers brokerage and water market solutions across a network of 14 branches in the Murray–Darling Basin and beyond. Mr Grahame is an Associate of the Australian Property Institute and was formerly a Property Valuer for some 14 years. He started in water broking in 2008, developing a large client base including corporates, government and family irrigators across South Australia (SA), Victoria and NSW. Mr Grahame is a director of a citrus, wine grape and almond property in Sunraysia and is also a past Secretary and President of the Australian Water Brokers Association.
Richard Anderson (VIC)
Richard Anderson is a mixed farmer from Bamawm and until early 2021, was chair of the Victorian Farmers Federation Water Council for 15 years. He is chair of the Connections Project Stakeholder Consultative Committee (the Connections Project being the largest irrigation modernisation project in Australia). He has previously chaired a customer committee of Goulburn-Murray Water for 25 years and been involved in the development of the Campaspe Deeplead Water Supply Protection Area. Mr Anderson also serves on several reference committees including Northern Region Sustainable Water Strategy, National Farmers Federation (NFF) Water Taskforce, Stakeholder Consultative Committee for Government Buy-Back of Water, NFF Technical Working Group and salinity reference committees as well as being involved in the Echuca and Rochester Victorian Farmers Federation branches.
Rosalie Auricht (SA)
Rosalie Auricht is the General Manager of Renmark Irrigation Trust. Her work involves managing the business and financial functions for the trust and facilitating delivery of Commonwealth environmental water to the Renmark floodplains (the trust was the first irrigating body in Australia to agree to do so). Ms Auricht has extensive business management experience, serving as the national finance business partner for the Australian Red Cross Blood Service, a corporate executive for Zoos SA and as finance director for SA Health. She is a Fellow of CPA Australia specialising in finance business strategy and government negotiation.
Stuart Armitage (QLD)
Stuart Armitage grew up on a dairy farm near Oakey but has been farming near Cecil Plains for the past 45 years, growing cotton & grains on the family’s 700-hectare irrigation property. Their farm is BMP accredited, and Stuart is a strong advocate for ensuring agricultural production in Australia is sustainable and profitable for the generations to come. Over the years, Stuart has been an active member of his farming community serving on the Central Downs Irrigators Limited, the Darling Downs Cotton Growers Inc, the Board of Cotton Australia and was the former president of the Queensland Farmers Federation (2015 – 2019). In 2020, he was awarded the Peter Kenny Medal for his outstanding and ongoing contribution to the Queensland agriculture sector. Mr Armitage was recently appointed to the Board of Sunwater and is a Commissioner at the Queensland Gasfields Commission Qld and Patron and Chair for ‘Are You Bogged Mate?’, a charity addressing the complex and detrimental mental health impacts in regional and farming communities.