The Nationals’ leader in the Senate and Federal Opposition water spokesman, Barnaby Joyce, is in the Riverland this week, after taking over the portfolio last month.

He says he will spend about three days meeting irrigator groups and key stakeholders in the region to gain an understanding of the issues facing the Riverland.

Senator Joyce, who hails from Saint George in southern Queensland, says he wants to broaden his knowledge about issues in communities around the Murray-Darling Basin.

“Obviously I live on the river in St George and it’s extremely important that we have an understanding of all the river and all it’s components from Toowoomba down to the mouth of the Murray, because that is our own peculiar little state, our state that goes across state boundaries, we are all connected by the Murray-Darling Basin,” he said.