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Tuesday 29 April 2008

RAPID ROUNDUP: Rudd Government's ‘Water for the Future’ plan – water experts respond.

The Minister for Climate Change and Water, Penny Wong, has announced the federal government's new ‘Water for the Future’ national water plan. The government has committed to establishing a $12.9 billion water investment program over ten years with $3.1 billion being spent on buying back water licences from irrigators in the Murray-Darling Basin.

Any further comments received on this issue will be posted here. If you wish to speak to an expert, don’t hesitate to contact the AusSMC on (08) 8207 7415.

Professor Mike Young is Research Chair, Water Economics and Management, The University of Adelaide and a Member of the Wentworth Group of Concerned Scientists

"It is important that the Rudd government has confirmed the budget is available for water reform. It is an important change to announce some economic discipline around the selection of investment programs. Beyond that, I would warn that perhaps the river might not give us a decade to fix this problem and if it remains dry it would be wise to include some speedy implementation rigour in the memorandum of understanding."

Ian Atkinson is the Chief Executive Officer of the CRC for Irrigation Futures.

“Infrastructure investment is critical to the development of a long term sustainable future for our rural irrigation regions so it is pleasing to see a significant commitment from the Rudd Government. Equally we need urban investment in the wise use of water to ensure Australians can continue to live a healthy lifestyle. The focus appears to be on drinking water but urban water supply is critical to our parks, gardens and sports fields and I hope the detail of the urban initiatives will cover these important urban irrigation needs. Better policy settings would allow use of lesser quality water for urban irrigation rather than expecting all water to be of drinking standard.”

Associate Professor Hector Malano, is an Irrigation Engineer, Head of the Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering and Assoc Dean International, Melbourne University. He recently concluded a 3-year term as Vice-President of the International Commission on Irrigation and Drainage and he has consulted for several international organisations including the World Bank, AusAID and Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations.

“The Ministers statement addressed some crucially important issues for the future of water resources in Australia. We should also celebrate the allocation of 12.9 million dollars over the next decade to address these all important issues. However, the statement falls well short of addressing the research and education investment that is needed to underpin sound and sustainable investment in water futures. A significant proportion of the announced investment will be spent on new and modernised infrastructure. This provides a unique opportunity to implement new and innovative irrigation technology in the next generation infrastructure needed to achieve efficiency and environmental dividends to sustain the multiple functions of rivers and aquifers. Typically, research and development investment should account for 2-3% of the total investment. Let’s hope that a similar amount is allocated in this endeavour to ensure that the challenges we are facing in the water sector can be addressed on the basis of a sound scientific basis."

Dr Jennifer McKay is Professor of Business Law at the University of South Australia and an expert in water law, especially water trading, water markets and the corporatisation of Australian water utilities.

“This is a great leap forward for Australia andheralds a new dimension in water based federalism. However the plan needs to invest funding in harmonising the underlying State laws over water allocationsand also in the water planning processes so that adjacent regions can talk about the same types of water. The regional plan in the 56 regions need not be the same but they should use a common lexicon. Funding needs to be allocated to engage the community in the debates.”