Southern Riverina Irrigators chairman Ted Hatty said recent events should impact the averaging system the MDBA had been using.

"It seem logical that it is not just droughts but also floods that are included for a better chance of getting a more likely and reasonable average," he said.

"Recent natural inflows have naturally turned the environment around and it would be interesting to see a basin plan that was being considered after the recent rainfall.

"I am sure it wouldn't look anything like it does at the moment because the key driver to the current plan is the drought."

Opposition water spokesman Barnaby Joyce supported the call for new data after he attended the MDBA's first community meeting for 2012 in Mildura last week.

"It is becoming more apparent that the data set they are using for the assessment of how much water the MDBA needs includes the two biggest droughts in history," he said.

"The calculations begin just before the Federation drought and finish just after the Millennium drought, leaving previous and recent rain events out altogether."

Senator Joyce said the public meetings were far from being consultations and had become more like "sermons from a pulpit".

"These 'supposed' consultations offer a generic answer, they never commit to anything and then they leave," he said.

Victorian Farmers Federation president Andrew Broad also attended the Mildura public meeting and said communities were feeling like they had been "consulted to death" but not heard.

The MDBA said the criticism of the timing and format of the meetings was misleading.

"The consultations have been going really well," a MDBA spokesperson said. "People are clearly interested and involved."

The next MDBA public meeting is in Swan Hill on Wednesday, February 22.

Victorian Water Minister and Member for Swan Hill Peter Walsh will attend the meeting but said Murray Darling Basin ministers were waiting to have their say.

"We will be submitting a Victorian Government response to the draft plan at the end of the 20-week consultation period," he said.

Mr Walsh said while ministers were not speaking up during the public meetings, they had been listening.

"The general feeling is that communities are very apprehensive about the whole MDBA plan concept and are seeking answers to questions that there is no answers for at this stage, particularly around the use of environmental water," he said.