National Water Reform (2018)
Inquiry report
Inquiry report
This report was sent to Government on 19 December 2017 and publicly released on 31 May 2018.
The report is an assessment of the progress in achieving the objectives and outcomes of the National Water Initiative (NWI) and the need for any future reform.
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- It is crucial that Australia persists in managing its water resources well, given our dry and highly variable climate, and the importance of water to our economy. Some jurisdictions have become complacent.
- Since its creation in 2004, the National Water Initiative (NWI) has made a significant contribution to this objective.
- While much of the attention has been on reform within the Murray‑Darling Basin, the NWI remains nationally relevant and the principles it contains are sound.
- There has generally been good progress by States and Territories in implementing the NWI, and most of its objectives and outcomes have been met.
- Legislative and policy frameworks are in place for water entitlements, planning, trading, accounting and the provision of water for the environment in most jurisdictions.
- Urban water and irrigation infrastructure services have been improved through institutional and pricing reforms.
- Water reform has delivered substantial benefits to irrigators, other water users and the broader community.
- The expansion of water trading has provided irrigators with greater flexibility to manage change and has encouraged greater efficiency.
- There is emerging evidence of improved ecological outcomes from increased environmental water, but it will take time for the full benefits to be realised.
- However, there remains further work to do. Governments need to:
- complete unfinished business from the NWI, including fully implementing entitlement and planning reforms, and economic regulation in some jurisdictions
- respond to the challenges posed by population growth, climate change and changing community expectations.
- Reform priorities include:
- maintaining the key foundations of water management, preventing the re‑emergence of outdated policies and avoiding the erosion of hard‑won reforms through backsliding
- revising national policy settings in a range of areas, including entitlement and planning arrangements for extractive industries, and the water needs of Indigenous Australians
- significantly enhancing national policy settings in:
- urban water management, including clearer roles and responsibilities for supply augmentation planning, improving economic regulation, enabling decentralised solutions and more outcomes‑focused environmental regulation
- environmental water management, including better integration with waterway management, strengthened and streamlined institutional, governance and management arrangements, and improved monitoring and evaluation for adaptive management
- new infrastructure, where the focus needs to be on ensuring environmental sustainability and financial viability before any government resources are committed for construction.
- Water reform requires perseverance, continuity and long‑term commitment from governments. To ensure that Australia’s water resources are managed sustainably to meet changing community needs, the priorities above should be incorporated into a renewed NWI by 2020.
- Failure to act now risks the gains made to date and means opportunities for greater efficiency, improved liveability and more sustainable environments would be lost.
