Sustainability and the National Water Initiative

This previously unpublished study was undertaken in 2006/7 with funding support provided by Land and Water Australia. (Its working title was ‘The Sustainability of Sustainable Limits to Extractions – informing the National Water Initiative’). The focus of the paper is on the debate about how best to introduce sustainable water management in Australia based on cases studies in the Northern Territory, Victoria and South Australia. The policy and institutional settings that provided the context of the paper remain essentially unchanged and the questions it addressed are still unresolved. It is being published at this time as a contribution to the public debate that will ensue with the release of the draft Murray Darling Basin Plan, prior to its finalization in 2011.