Reforming Water Law and Governance

296 Pages·2018·3.585 MB·English

by  Cameron Holley, Darren Sinclair

Cameron Holley · Darren Sinclair
Editors
Reforming
Water Law and
Governance
From Stagnation to Innovation
in Australia
Reforming Water Law and Governance
Cameron Holley Darren Sinclair
(cid:129)
Editors
Reforming Water Law
and Governance
From Stagnation to Innovation in Australia
123
Editors
Cameron Holley Darren Sinclair
UNSW Sydney University of Canberra
Sydney,NSW Bruce,Canberra, ACT
Australia Australia
ISBN978-981-10-8976-3 ISBN978-981-10-8977-0 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-8977-0
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Preface
On 21 September 2016, the United Nations High Level Panel on Water made a joint
statementcallingforactiontodelivera‘watersecureworld’.Theurgencyofthiscallis
underpinnedbythecentralityofwatertoourveryexistence,whichisbeingthreatened
in an unprecedented fashion by increasing water disasters and scarcity arising from
economic and population growth, as well as the compounding negative impacts of
climate change. Fittingly, water security assumes a prominent position in the United
Nations’SustainableDevelopmentGoals.Whileitclearlyhasglobalandinternational
dimensions,achievingwatersecurityisfirstandforemostachallengefornationaland
regional governments. It is incumbent, then, on advocates of evidenced-based public
policytoputtheir‘shouldertothewheel’inseeking,articulatingandprovidingbetter
approaches to water law and governance.
The aspiration of this book is, in our own small way, a response to this call for
action.Inparticular,itaimstocomplementandexpandexistingresearchandpolicy
thinking on water law and governance by distilling contemporary and practical
legal and governance insights from Australia’s now mature water reform journey,
by providing comparisons with the experiences of other nations, particularly the
United States of America, and by projecting how best to steer water governance
onto a more sustainable path.
Thebook’sfocusonAustraliaarosefromrecentsuggestionsthatAustralia’swater
governance reforms have stagnated. Indeed, around the same time as the High Level
Panel on Water was forming, Australia, arguably a global leader in taking innovative
andcomprehensiveactiononwatergovernance,wasbecomingincreasinglyequivocal
andapatheticinrespondingtoexistingandfuturewatersecuritychallenges.Australia’s
20-year law and governance journey of developing market systems, collaborative
planning and enforcement had achieved much (and received much praise) in
respondingtomajordroughts.However,by2014therewasapalpablemoodthatwater
law and governance was no longer a political or policy priority despite many issues
remaining unresolved. The risks of reform complacency are substantial. As Karlene
Maywald, former chair of Australia’s National Water Commission, warned on 20
October2014:‘Nowisnotthetimetowalkawayfromwaterreformandleadership…
Instead,weurgegovernmentstolockintheirhard-wongains…Thisistheonlyway
v
vi Preface
to ensure our communities—and Australia’s next generations—against future water
security risks’.
It was in response to this context that we, through the Faculty of Law and the
ConnectedWatersInitiativeResearchCentreatUNSWSydney,organisedaworkshop
on 7–8 December 2015 on the broad theme of Rethinking Water Governance. Many
ofthechaptersofthisbookemergedfromthisworkshop,wheredetailedandin-depth
reviewsanddiscussionswereheldamongstparticipantsastheylookedintothepastand
projected forward to highlight key successes and limits of Australia’s hybrid water
governance system. The new lines of vision and collective voices this workshop
brought to the analysis of Australian water law and governance led us to invite par-
ticipantstorevisetheirpapersforsubmissioninaseriesofcollectiveoutputs,including
aschaptersinthisbook.Anumberofothercontributionswerealsoreceivedfromthose
who had otherwise been unable to attend the workshop.
Our work has benefited significantly from two Australian Research Council
DiscoveryEarlyCareerResearcherAwards(DE140101216andDE170101536)andan
Australian Research Council Linkage Grant (LP130100967). Some material within
thebookwasfirstdevelopedfromandappearedinEmmaCarmody,BarbaraCosens,
AlexGardner,LeeGodden,JaniceGray,CameronHolley,LouiseLee,BruceLindsay,
LizMacpherson,RebeccaNelson,ErinO’Donnell,LilyO’Neill,KateOwens,Darren
Sinclair (2016). ‘The future of water reform in Australia—starting a conversation’
Australian Environment Review, 31(4), 132–137 and contributions to a Special Issue
(‘Rethinking Water Law and Governance’, Volume 33, Part 4, 2016, p. 275) of the
Environmental and Planning Law Journal edited by Cameron Holley. The special
issue was first published by Thomson Reuters in the Environmental and Planning
Law Journal and should be cited as Cameron Holley (ed), Special Issue, Rethinking
Water Law and Governance (2016) 33(4) EPLJ 275. For all subscription inquiries
please phone, from Australia: 1300 304 195, from Overseas: [phone] or
online at legal.thomsonreuters.com.au/search. The official PDF version of the special
issue and its contributions can also be purchased separately from Thomson Reuters
at http://sites.thomsonreuters.com.au/journals/subscribe-or-purchase.
This book was only made possible by the dedication and hard work of the
authors,andweareextremelygratefultoallofthem.Wealsothankourcolleagues
WendyTimms,FleurJohns,AndyBaker,MartinAnderson,BryceKelly,Bronwen
Morgan,RosemaryRayfuse, AlexGardner,PaulMartin,NeilGunningham,James
Patterson, Lauren Butterly, Gabriela Cuadrado Quesada, and two anonymous
reviewers who reviewed and commented on the proposal, the work contained
withinthisbook,orwhoextendedinotherwaysourunderstandingofwater,andits
law and governance issues. Many thanks must also go to Springer for their assis-
tance, understanding and tireless efforts, and to Amelia Brown, Trent Wilson,
Genevieve Wilks, Bonnie Perris, Antonia Ross and Ganur Maynard for the
unstinting research assistance and editorial work.
Sydney, Australia Cameron Holley
Bruce, Canberra, Australia Darren Sinclair
November 2017
Contents
Replenishing Australia’s Water Future: From Stagnation
to Innovation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Cameron Holley and Darren Sinclair
Part I The Murray-Darling Basin—Progress and
Challenges in Multi-jurisdictional Water Governance
The Unwinding of Water Reform in the Murray-Darling Basin:
A Cautionary Tale for Transboundary River Systems. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
Emma Carmody
Multi-jurisdictional Water Governance in Australia:
Muddle or Model? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
Bradley C. Karkkainen
Environmental Water Transactions and Innovation
in Australia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
Katherine Owens
Part II Water Markets—Property, Regulation and Implementation
Water Entitlements as Property: A Work in Progress
or Watertight Now? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
Janice Gray and Louise Lee
Regulatory and Economic Instruments: A Useful Partnership
to Achieve Collective Objectives?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123
Adam Loch, C Dionisio Perez-Blanco, Dolores Rey, Erin O’Donnell
and David Adamson
Water Markets and Regulation: Implementation, Successes
and Limitations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141
Cameron Holley and Darren Sinclair
vii
viii Contents
Part III Collaboration and Participation—Litigation, Coordination
and Water Rights
Public Participation in Water Resources Management in Australia:
Procedure and Possibilities. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171
Bruce Lindsay
A Governance Solution to Australian Freshwater Law and Policy. . . . . 193
Jennifer McKay
Lessons from Australian Water Reforms: Indigenous and
Environmental Values in Market-Based Water Regulation . . . . . . . . . . 213
Elizabeth Macpherson, Erin O’Donnell, Lee Godden and Lily O’Neill
Part IV Future Governance Challenges—Cumulative Impacts,
Resource Industries and Climate Change
Regulating Cumulative Impacts in Groundwater Systems: Global
Lessons from the Australian Experience . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 237
Rebecca Louise Nelson
Compromising Confidence? Water, Coal Seam Gas and Mining
Governance Reform in Queensland and Wyoming. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 257
Poh-Ling Tan and Jacqui Robertson
Governing the Freshwater Commons: Lessons from Application
of the Trilogy of Governance Tools in Australia and the Western
United States . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 281
Barbara Cosens
’
Replenishing Australia s Water Future:
From Stagnation to Innovation
Cameron Holley and Darren Sinclair
Abstract This chapter charts Australia’s leading-edge water law and governance
reforms.Itdiscussesprogressonimplementationandthechallengesthishasposed.
Connections are drawn between Australia’s experience and the water law and
governance literature. After outlining the book’s chapters, four fundamental ques-
tionsareanalysedandanswered,namelyhowsuccessfulisAustralia’sapproachto
designing and implementing water governance? What conditions have enabled or
blocked its success, including environment, social, political and legal? How does
Australia’s water governance system compare and contrast with different interna-
tional water governance practices? And what are the broader insights for future
water governance practice and theory?
WearegratefulfortheresearchassistanceandeditingofAmeliaBrownandTrentWilson.Parts
of this chapter first appeared in Carmody et al 2016; Holley and Sinclair 2016 and Cameron
HolleyandDarrenSinclair,‘GoverningWaterMarkets;Achievements,Limitationsandtheneed
for regulatory reform’ (2016) 33(4)Environmental and Planning Law Journal301–324. The
lattertwoarticleswerefirstpublishedbyThomsonReutersintheEnvironmentalandPlanning
LawJournalandshouldbecitedasCameronHolleyandDarrenSinclair,‘RethinkingAustralian
water governance: successes, challenges and future directions’ (2016) 33(4)EPLJ 275–283;
Cameron Holley and Darren Sinclair, ‘Governing Water Markets; Achievements, Limitations
andtheneedforregulatoryreform’(2016)33(4)EPLJ301–324.Forallsubscriptioninquiries
pleasephone,fromAustralia:1300304195,fromOverseas:[phone]oronlineatlegal.
thomsonreuters.com.au/search.The official PDF version of this article can also be pur-
chasedseparately from Thomson Reuters athttp://sites.thomsonreuters.com.au/journals/
subscribe-or-purchase.
C.Holley(&)
UNSWLawSchool,ConnectedWatersInitiativeResearchCentre(UNSWSydney),
theNationalCentreforGroundwaterResearchandTraining,andtheGlobalRiskGovernance
Programme(UniversityofCapeTown),Sydney,Australia
e-mail:[email protected]
D.Sinclair
UniversityofCanberra,VisitingFellowatConnectedWatersInitiativeResearch
Centre(UNSWSydney)andMemberoftheNationalCentreforGroundwaterResearch
andTraining,Bruce,ACT,Australia
e-mail:[email protected]
©SpringerNatureSingaporePteLtd.2018 1
C.HolleyandD.Sinclair(eds.),ReformingWaterLawandGovernance,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-8977-0_1
2 C.HolleyandD.Sinclair
1 Introduction
In the age of the Anthropocene, stresses on water are local, transboundary and
global(HighLevelPanelonWater2016,p.3;CrutzenandStoermer2000;Crutzen
2002). Within and across these multiple scales, the impacts of climate change,
population growth, and accompanying energy and food demands, are all placing
increasingpressureonwatersystemsandsupplies(Pahl-Wostletal.2010;WWAP
2015).Agriculturealoneconsumesthelargemajorityofwater,andalmostone-fifth
oftheworld’spopulationalreadylive inareas withphysicalwaterscarcities(FAO
2007). Projections suggest that if the world continues on its current trajectory, we
may face a 40% shortfall in water availability by 2030, threatening our environ-
ment, our security and our economy (High Level Panel on Water 2016, p. 3).
Itisnotsurprisingthenthatsince2012,watercriseshavebeenconsistentlylisted
as a top global risk (WEF 2017). As the United Nations Sustainable Development
Goalsmakeclear,wemusturgentlychangehowwemanagetheavailabilityanduse
of water if we, and our fellow species, are to survive (see e.g. Sustainable
Development Goal 6; High Level Panel on Water 2016, p. 3).
The traditional response to our shared water challenge has been to pursue
technological and infrastructure fixes (Jury and Vaux 2005). In contrast, law,
governance and regulation, the subjects of this book, have been far from front and
centre(Kiddetal.2014;PahlWostl2015;Grayetal.2016).AccordingtotheUN
High Level Panel on Water (2016, p. 6), water is ‘often left out of budgeting,
legislation,andhumanresourcesmobilizationdecisionsanddiscussions’.Thislack
of legal and governance leadership has marginalised water law and governance
systems, and arguably left them poorly equipped to cope with increasing pressure
on water resources (Gupta and Pahl-Wostl 2013). As the OECD (2011, p. 17)
succinctly puts it, today’s ‘“water crisis” is largely a governance crisis’.
Over the latter part of last century, and early this century, water laws, policies
and evolving governance apparatuses have been gradually tested, explored and
refinedatinternational,regionalandnationallevels.Internationally,therehasbeen
increasing attention on global responses, through multi-lateral agreements and
frameworks, as well as trans-boundary water sources involving integrated water
resource management (Biswas 2004; Salman 2007; Tarlock 2010; Gupta and
Pahl-Wostl 2013; Moynihan 2014). However, state sovereignty remains a gover-
nance hurdle for numerous water resources, and there have been few sustainable
successes in the complexity of managing transboundary water problems
(Tujchneideretal.2013;Hearnsetal.2014;Grayetal.2016).Attheregionallevel,
the European Union has developed experimental governance and basin-focused
mechanisms that encourage cooperation between nation states and civil society
under its Water Framework Directive (van Rijswick 2016). Nevertheless, wide-
spreadanddemonstrableachievementshavebeenslowtoarrive, withanumberof
studies highlighting the challenge of engaging non-government stakeholders and