Water reform arrangements must be strengthened
Media release - 3 November 2011
National Water Commission Chair Ms Chloe Munro said that the COAG Reform Council’s findings released today in its second annual report on Water Management Partnerships are consistent with the Commission’s recent assessment of water reform progress under the National Water Initiative.
Ms Munro said, ‘The Commission is encouraged that Murray-Darling Basin states have largely met their reform milestones for 2010 and is reassured by the progress made on water planning, water trading and state-specific reform commitments.
‘In providing the Council with the Commission’s second assessment of performance under Water Management Partnerships, we found that most water planning actions were completed, the development of new water plans is well advanced, most states met the ongoing trade service standards for water markets, and trading and trade processing systems improved.
‘However, the Commission strongly supports the Council’s conclusion that reform milestones should be amended to ensure they better capture and more comprehensively assess the intent of the agreed reforms.’
Ms Munro said, ‘The reform actions contained in the agreements represent only a limited subset of water reforms agreed to by the jurisdictions under the National Water Initiative.
‘Any future reform agreements should require commitments that are more wide-ranging, more demanding and more evenly balanced between jurisdictions.
‘This is consistent with the Commission’s recommendation in its recent Australia-wide assessment of water reform progress that COAG should consider a new approach to incentives to encourage the delivery of nationally significant water reforms’, said Ms Munro.
Ms Munro said, ‘Australia will undergo a critical test for water reform when it implements the Murray-Basin Plan.
‘The development and implementation of a single plan that covers the entire Basin is integral to realising the full benefits of water reform.
‘Making sure that we have the appropriate arrangements in place to measure progress in the way we manage our water will be critical.’
The full report, Water Management Partnerships: Report on Performance 2010, including the Commission's assessment in Volume 2, is available on the COAG Reform Council website.
Assessment of progress against Water Management Partnership Agreement reform actions