Baseline assessment of water governance arrangements
Project details
| Objective: |
To examine priority water governance issues impacting on the achievement of NWI outcomes, and examine how, over time, better practice water governance arrangements can be encouraged and implemented across Australia. |
| Funding: |
Up to $100 000 plus applicable GST from the Australian Government towards improving water governance arrangements across Australia. |
| Jurisdiction: |
National |
| Commenced: |
January 2008 |
| Completed: |
July 2009 |
Progress
About the project
The National Water Commission (Commission) was required to undertake a baseline assessment of water governance arrangements under the National Water Initiative (NWI) and the National Water Commission Act 2004. This was a companion product to the Commission's baseline assessment of water resources (Australian Water Resources 2005), and informed the 2010-11 biennial assessment of the NWI.
The first product of the assessment was Australian Water Governance 2006 - an online resource that illustrates the institutional architecture, and legislative and administrative arrangements in place in each Australian state and territory at the end of 2006.
Development of Australian Water Governance 2006 and the Commission's 2006-07 biennial assessment of NWI progress revealed a number of governance-related issues that are impacting the achievement of NWI outcomes. This project examined how, over time, better practice water governance arrangements can be encouraged and implemented across Australia to address a number of key water governance challenges, for example environmental water governance.
Project benefits
This project will contribute towards improved water governance across Australia by recommending better practice governance arrangements for a number of priority areas. An internal report was produced to inform further work in this theme.