Water governance and politics in Australia

Australia is the world’s driest inhabited continent with highly variable climate and rainfall, and recurrent droughts and floods. Australia’s water reforms have involved a combination of tradable water entitlements for consumptive and environmental use, water markets, integrated water planning, monitoring, compliance and enforcement. The implementation of the water access entitlements and planning framework, water markets, and national water accounting and information have been largely successful. Further efforts are needed to implement environmental water recovery targets, improve water quality management and strengthen compliance and enforcement. Strong political leadership by the Australian and state governments contributed to the successful establishment of water reforms but, in the longer term, national centralization of water management for the Murray-Darling basin has yet to resolve implementation challenges. Australian experience illustrates that water reform is a long-term water governance process. Successful implementation depends on supporting strong accountability, effective stakeholder engagement, learning and adaptation to change and considerable public and private investment in policy implementation.