healthy rivers using water wisely and securing water supplies. The MDBA also commissions research into aquatic science and is a source of information on Australian freshwater biology. History Since 1914, there have been various intergovernmental agreements relating to Murray‑Darling water resources. Prior to the formation of the Murray–Darling Basin Authority, institutional arrangements for water resources management lay with the five State and Territory governments in the Basin, with little co-ordination. In response to this problem, the Murray–Darling Basin Commission was established in January 1988 under the Murray–Darling Basin Agreement, with a charter to efficiently manage and equitably distribute River Murray water resources. Secondly, it was to protect and improve the water quality of the River Murray and its tributaries; and lastly to advise the Murray–Darling Ministerial Council on water, land and environmental management in the Basin. The controversial history of water allocation in the Basin and disputes between irrigators and environmentalists dates from the 1960s and is documented in the book, Cottoning on: Stories of Australian Cotton-growing by Siobhán McHugh (Hale and Iremonger 1996), which was shortlisted for the NSW Premier's History Prize in 1997. The Water Amendment Act 2008 was introduced in December 2008 to amend the Water Act 2007. This law transferred authority from the Murray–Darling Basin Commission to the Murray–Darling Basin Authority, creating an independent, expert-based body that would manage the Basin holistically for the first time. As at November 2016, the MDBA is four years into the implementation phase of the Basin Plan. The MDBA has published major bodies of work, including: Basin environmental watering strategy Annual environmental watering priorities Constraints management strategy New water trade operating rules The MDBA also established a water trading scheme across Basin states to increase water use efficiency. In summer 2018–2019, there were substantial fish kill events in the Murray-Darling basin. A report released in January 2019 by the Productivity Commission found that the Murray–Darling Basin Authority should be broken up. Murray-Darling Basin Plan On 8 October 2010, the MDBA released a major document entitled the Guide to the Proposed Murray–Darling Basin Plan outlining a plan to secure the long-term ecological health of the Murray–Darling Basin. The guide introduced cutting existing water allocations and increasing environmental flows. The proposed plan was the first part of a three-stage process to address the problems of the Murray–Darling Basin; namely, over-allocation, prolonged drought, natural climate variability and climate change, leading to deterioration of