New Water Policy and Practice Volume 1, Number 2 - Spring 2015 | Page 72

Water Industry (Law) Reforms

2 - Background

I

n the early 1990’s, given pressure from political (The Greens8), population,
industry and environmental concerns, the then labour government imitated shifts
in Australian national policies in favour of improved environmental and water
management. The requirement to deliver recognisable improvements in environmental
health, natural resource management, and sustainable industries was lodged firmly in
the political landscape. This initiative was preceded by the launch of the Decade of
Landcare policy (19899) in Wentworth (NSW) by the then Prime Minister Bob Hawke,
as a motivating force to tackle land degradation, using a process that relies heavily on
local community groups, within a framework that recognised the responsibilities of
the Commonwealth, state and local governments (DAFF 1995).

This new-found enthusiasm for the environment found its way into water
resources through the Council of Australian Governments (CoAG) through the
introduction of the Inter-Governmental Agreement on the Environment (1992)10,
and the subsequent Strategy for Ecologically Sustainable Development (1992)11. The
strategy provides broad strategic directions and frameworks for governments to direct
policy and decision making, and that was expected to facilitate a coordinated approach
to ecologically sustainable development which encourages long-term benefits for
Australia over short-term gains12.

These agreements were followed by initiatives in subsequent years that
focused more closely on water and its role in Australian society and its importance to
environmental sustainability and industry development. However, the management
of water, its regulation and governance becomes a complex task given that there are
some 800 agencies across Australia involved in this process in elements of source,
supply, consumption, and disposal of water, at the federal, state, regional and local
levels (AECOM 2010). To counter this level of complexity and lack of sophistication,
the Commonwealth Government, although not having a direct regulatory role in the
water industry, acting through the Council of Australian Governments (COAG 1994)
initiated and passed strategic legislation and water law reform initiatives.

The 1994 COAG reforms, formalised later under the Inter-governmental
Agreement on a National Water Initiative (NWI) 200413, were targeted at improving
9

Decade of Landcare-speech delivered by Prime Minister Bob Hawke at the launch of the Statement on
the Environment, Wentworth, July 20, 1989, http://www.bobhawkelandcareaward.com.au/bob-hawkespeech.pdf
10
Inter-Governmental Agreement on the Environment, 1992, http://www.environment.gov.au/about/
esd/publications/igae/index.html
11
National Strategy for Ecologically Sustainable Development, 1992, http://www.environment.gov.au/
about/esd/publications/strategy/index.html
12
Ibid 1992.
13
The National Water Commission was created under the NWC Act 2004 (Cth) and came into force on
December 17, 2004.

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