Balancing Consumptive and Environmental Water Use –An Australian Perspective - Water and Agriculture: Sustainability, Markets and Policies - page 189

Strategically balancing the needs of the environment with water allocation for
consumptive users is a major task facing Australian governments and communities. This
paper highlighted the major environmental challenges consequent to declining water
quality and reflected on the co-operative, intergovernmental responses in Australia to
increase the efficiency of water use and improve the sustainability and productivity of the
agricultural sector, while promoting the health of river and groundwater systems. It drew
on activities undertaken in the Murray-Darling Basin in inland Australia and Great
Barrier Reef catchment along the eastern coast of Australia to illustrate approaches by
Australian policymakers for policy setting and programme delivery to achieve these
multiple objectives.
While located in geographically and climatically distinct regions of Australia, the
case studies displayed some common characteristics that are often perceived as key
ingredients for success in the Australian environmental management arena. They include
strong, co-operative relationships between the Australian and state or territory
governments and focus on multi-stakeholder approaches that embrace not only different
government bodies, but also representatives from the wider community, such as the
agricultural industry and community groups. Such co-operation and involvement is
required from the outset, when the goals, objectives and implementation mechanisms are
determined. Strategies and policy directions need to be negotiated amongst the parties,
and agreed, to receive support, and should be readily accessible to all involved as binding
agreements, such as the Murray-Darling Basin Agreement and the Reef Water Quality
Protection Plan. All parties to the process should have clear roles and responsibilities to
ensure accountability. Remediation activities and solutions should include measures that
tackle social, economic and environmental challenges. Finally, and perhaps most
importantly, goodwill needs to be matched with adequate financial support by
governments in order to bring the visions, goals and ideas to fruition.
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