Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
Plans are intended to be living documents - their performance monitored, knowledge
improvements included, and outcomes regularly reported to the public
(NWI paragraph 40). Water plans of this kind are already a common feature in most
states, although plans are yet to be developed for many priority systems.
Importantly, the NWI also commits governments to use best available scientific
knowledge, socio-economic analysis, and consultation with stakeholders in the
development of water plans. This will not obviate the competition between uses.
However, it should help create a shared understanding of the resource, and greater
acceptance of the management regime (including regulatory means) required to achieve
the productive and environmental outcomes for the system which are specified in the
water plan.
Creating the conditions for market-based systems for managing water resources
A major objective of the water reform agenda in Australia is to enable a measured
increase in the use of market-based systems for managing water. This is seen as critical
to realising gains in the allocative and technical efficiency of water use. The
commitments which governments have entered into in the NWI underscore this direction
by advancing some of the preconditions for market-based management of water in a
number of areas.
Clear specification water access entitlements
Separation of land title and water title has been pursued by state and territory
governments since the 1994 COAG water reform framework.
The NWI further specifies that consumptive use of water requires a water access
entitlement to be described in legislation as a perpetual share of the consumptive pool of a
water resource (NWI paragraph 28). Water access entitlements are to be separate from
regulatory approvals for water use on a particular site or purpose (NWI paragraph 29).
The NWI also specifies the characteristics that water access entitlements should have
(NWI paragraph 31), including that they: be exclusive; are able to be traded; are able to
be subdivided or amalgamated; are able to be mortgaged to access finance; and are
recorded in public water registers.
Creating certainty and public confidence around water access entitlements is a
fundamental precondition for the investment to underpin use of the water resource. It is
also a precondition for trade in water entitlements. In most states and territories, the
conversion of existing water entitlements into share-based entitlements as required under
the NWI is still under way. For example, in Queensland and New South Wales,
conversion of entitlements is occurring only when water plans are completed for
catchments and groundwater management areas - these water plans establish the
available consumptive pool of the water resource.
The NWI also requires that water provided to meet environmental and other public
benefits is to have statutory recognition, and have at least the same degree of security as
water access entitlements for consumptive use (NWI paragraph 35). This is to ensure that
water for environmental outcomes is not made less secure in the wake of greater security
for consumptive water entitlements.
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