The future of water reform in Australia - starting a conversation

After 2 decades of cooperative governmental reforms on water, Australia established a world-leading hybrid governance system involving top-down regulation, water markets and water planning with stakeholder cooperation. Yet, with the abolition of the National Water Commission (NWC) in 2015, there is a growing belief that Australia may have dropped the ball on water. As the Wentworth Group of Concerned Scientists affirmed in 2014, it appears that our Australian governments are walking away from strategic water reform at the very time when we should be preparing for the next inevitable drought. Unfortunately, there are few signs that this situation is improving. Since the passing of the Basin Plan 2012 (Cth) and the breaking of the millennium drought, there has been little detailed intergovernmental direction about the next steps in Australias water law and governance journey. It is increasingly unclear how resilient Australias water reform blueprint (the National Water Initiative) will be in the face of shifting political agendas, growing complexity, reform fatigue, shrinking public resources at state levels and the absence of an independent oversight body like the NWC.