New National Water Initiative at risk of being watered down

Water ministers met for the first time in a decade to discuss the road ahead for major water reform.

Major water reform is at risk of being derailed by states and territories that no longer agree on the core commitments of an existing intergovernmental agreement on water.

The National Water Initiative was agreed to in 2004 and sets out an approach to water management across Australia.

In a Productivity Commission report quietly released last week on the eve of two major ministerial meetings of water ministers, a renewed NWI is at risk of being watered down, potentially leading to negative impacts for long-term water security.

The PC “has heard some jurisdictions do not wish to retain some of the core NWI commitments in the new agreement. This is typically because existing, often longstanding policy settings are at odds with these commitments,” the PC said in an overview to its 320-page final report.

“There is a resultant risk that, for consensus to be reached between the parties, the new agreement may represent a weaker commitment to some of the fundamentals of water policy than the NWI.

“This could have negative implications for longer-term water security because an erosion of the authorising environment for implementation could lead to backsliding – a future risk even for those jurisdictions who have already progressed further in meeting their commitments against the NWI.”

Water ministers met for the first time in 10 years on Friday to discuss the PC’s report. Their hour-long virtual meeting was followed by a Murray Darling Basin Ministerial Council meeting, which was also held virtually for an hour.

Water Minister Tanya Plibersek said water ministers progressed an updated National Water Agreement to better safeguard water resources from the impacts of climate change and drought.

But shadow water spokeswoman Perin Davey criticised the federal government’s commitment to reform, which she said required more than an hour over Skype to discuss.

“The Murray Darling Basin Ministerial Council hasn’t met for over 16 months and yet they only had one Skype hour to discuss 11 different topics – that is less than 5 minutes per topic,” Ms Davey said.

“I honestly don’t see that time being enough to answer the very legitimate questions the Victorian Water Minister raised on ABC radio this week, including how the Commonwealth is proposing to proceed in a way that takes account of negative socio-economic impact.”

The PC’s inquiry to assess the states’ and territories’ progress towards achieving the outcomes of the 2004 NWI began in December last year.

The Weekly Times understands jurisdictions outside of the Murray Darling Basin have done little by way of water reform stepped out in the 2004 document.