NATIONAL IRRIGATORS’ COUNCIL
POLICY PORTFOLIO - WATER LAW AND PLANNING
Advocating for the Australian irrigated agriculture industry
NATIONAL IRRIGATORS’ COUNCIL
Advocating for the Australian irrigated agriculture industry
The Australian Constitution outlines that Australia's waters are the responsibility of State and Territory jurisdictions (Section 100).
Overtime Federal Government intervention and direction in water policy has increased. Particularly due to coordination across state boundaries and the desire for national consistency through Federal oversight has been enabled. This has progressively occurred as water resources were developed.
Australia's foundational document for water law and planning is arguably the National Water Initiative which was agreed in 2004 as an intergovernmental agreement after more than a decade of discussions from the first Council of Australian Governments meeting in 1994. States and Territories agreed in 2004 to implement 10 objectives and complete more than 110 actions to implement the agreement, including the creation of state water management law, which is how the NWI become the blueprint for Australian water management.
"23 Objectives:
Full implementation of this Agreement will result in a nationally-compatible, market, regulatory and planning based system of managing surface and groundwater resources for rural and urban use that optimises economic, social and environmental outcomes by achieving the following:
i. clear and nationally-compatible characteristics for secure water access entitlements;
ii. transparent, statutory-based water planning;
iii. statutory provision for environmental and other public benefit outcomes, and improved environmental management practices;
iv. complete the return of all currently overallocated or overused systems to environmentally-sustainable levels of extraction;
v. progressive removal of barriers to trade in water and meeting other requirements to facilitate the broadening and deepening of the water market, with an open trading market to be in place;
vi. clarity around the assignment of risk arising from future changes in the availability of water for the consumptive pool;
vii. water accounting which is able to meet the information needs of different water systems in respect to planning, monitoring, trading, environmental management and on-farm management;
viii. policy settings which facilitate water use efficiency and innovation in urban and rural areas;
ix. addressing future adjustment issues that may impact on water users and communities; and
x. recognition of the connectivity between surface and groundwater resources and connected systems managed as a single resource."
In 2007, a Commonwealth Water Act to address environmental concerns and further support consistency of management in the Murray Darling
Basin was forged. It is Australia's primary legislation that concerns the Commonwealth Government's powers over the Murray–Darling
Basin and enables the establishment of the Murray Darling Basin Plan, and assciated beauracraces of the Murray Darling Basin Authority, the
Commonwealth Environmental Water Holder and the Inspector General Water Compliance to implement and enforce the plan.
The Act's objectives include the management
of the Basin's water resources,
addressing threats
to the Basin,
promoting the environmentally,
economically and socially sustainable use
of the Basin's resources, conservation of
the Basin ecosystem,
maximising the economic benefit to the Basin communities, and improving water
security.
KEY MESSAGE
NIC today lodged their submission to DCCEEW on the Water Market reform - Intermediaries Code and Statutory Trust Account Policy Position paper with an overarching concern that the regulatory burden of this reform, particularly given its scale and pace. We are also concerned that the reform is going too far, and is becoming disproportionate to the problem at hand, and the size and extent of water markets. While market integrity, transparency and good governance are important – there is enormous risk of not striking the right balance for a proportionate policy response […]
Take a look at our final submission on both the:
DCCEEW recently released their progress assessment of the water market reforms. This document outlines the steps taken to implement the ACCC recommendations and highlights the significant change still to navigate through water market reforms as required by the Restoring Our Rivers 2023 amendment. Unfortunately, the progress update provides no assessment of the costs and benefits of these reforms, rather forges ahead. Current consultation include Water Market Decisions, Water Market Pre-Trade data and the final policy position for the Intermediaries Code via the Department’s website.
Today, Federal Senate Estimates for the Environment and Communications portfolio held their hearings on
matters relating to the Murray Darling Basin Plan, water market reforms and the National Water Agreement renewal. The hearings are available
via the Australian Parliament YouTube channel.
Some key outcomes from today's discussion confirmed that an updated version of the National Water Agreement is due "soon" and that
many of the stakeholder concerns, including those from the Productivity Commission were being addressed. The Department indicated a
living entity is not a legal entity and that there is no intention for Free, Informed and Prior Consent, to provide authority over water
decisions.
Questioning regarding buybacks revealed that 26GL out of the 90GL of 'overwhelming offers' last year for Bridging the Gap were contracted
with 72% rejected due to value for money concerns.
National Irrigators' Council CEO, Zara Lowien writes "after decades of difficult reforms implementing Australia's best-practice water
management blueprint - the National Water Initiative (NWI) - the federal government is negotiating to water it down, in the National Water
Agreement (NWA).
If the NWI is the architecturally designed blueprint, the NWA is the flatpack version with unclear instructions and a few missing
pieces"...
The independent advisory body with statutory authority to review Australia’s national water reform has published scathing feedback on the Federal Governments proposed National Water Agreement, calling the approach “detrimental to the conduct of water management in Australia” [...]
The federal governments draft National Water Agreement should be of concern to all who rely on rivers writes National Irrigators' Council CEO, Zara Lowien for the Weekly Times [...]
National Irrigators are calling on states and territories, the future signatories to an updated National Water Agreement, to say “no way to the draft NWA”. The Federal Government’s rushed NWA is tipped to be our nations next water management blueprint[i] but risks major changes to water management frameworks in its current form. Zara Lowien, CEO of the National Irrigators’ Council said, “States cannot sign the current draft NWA" [...]
The NIC is deeply concerned by the draft principles proposed for the National Water Agreement (NWA) and is of the position, it is not
fit-for-purpose to be signed in its current form.
The original National Water Initiative (NWI) set the blueprint for water reform in Australia over the past two decades and is a fundamental underpinning of Australia’s water management. It is a document that needs to be taken seriously by all stakeholders and jurisdictions, and
its content upheld to be a first-class and best-practice approach to water management. [...]
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