Media notes - Meritorious

PUBLIC SERVICE MEDAL (PSM)
Dr Rhondda Gay DICKSON, Yass Valley Shire NSW
For outstanding public service in the formulation and implementation of natural
resource management policy, particularly water policy in the Murray-Darling Basin,
through leadership of the Murray-Darling Basin Authority.
Dr Dickson has been instrumental in achieving the inter-state settlement that has proved the
basis for the acceptance of the Murray-Darling Basin Plan and its approval by the Parliament.
The Plan is complex and its formulation in a fraught environment required the bringing
together of the work of many technical and water policy specialists, in a way that could
adequately balance the diametrically opposed interests of the up and downstream States.
The reform provides a world leading example of whole-of-river-basin water planning, where
rivers do not respect man-made State borders, and returns sufficient water to underpin the
environmental health of the Basin. In doing so this reform completes 'unfinished business'
from the time of Federation and provides the basis for environmental health of water
dependent ecosystems of the river basin. Dr Dickson has worked across the full scope of
practical natural resource management, including as Deputy Secretary of the Department of
Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry and as a senior executive at the Department of the Prime
Minister and Cabinet and Department of Environment.
Dr Nicholas Gerrit (Nick) HARTLAND, O'Connor ACT 2602
For outstanding public service in the establishment of the National Disability
Insurance Scheme and longstanding and remarkable service to public administration
in the area of social policy.
Dr Hartland is a public servant of integrity and outstanding ability in the policy development
area. This has been demonstrated most recently through his contribution to the establishment
of the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS). He has been highly successful in
developing key policy and legislative advice that informs the core elements of the NDIS.
Another major achievement relates to his role on the Tax-Transfer Taskforce. On this
taskforce, he managed the work of the Pension Review, the first strategic review of the
architecture of pension payments for 20 years. Through this work, and his many other
achievements, Dr Hartland has made a significant contribution to Australia's social policy.
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