| 1 December 2011 l The Australian National University l Canberra |
| WATER LAW AND POLICY 2011 OPTIMISING THE FUTURE OF THE MURRAY-DARLING BASIN |
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| A conference hosted by the Australian Centre for Environmental Law ANU College of Law |
Program REGISTRATION accommodation ENQUIRIES |
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The conservation and use of the waters of the Murray-Darling Basin always have been, and probably always will be, contested. The law has always played a key role in framing that contest and, in recent years, that role has grown. Since 1994, national water policy has proposed legal reforms, alongside Commonwealth funding initiatives, as the principal instrument for achieving the sustainable management of water resources. The resultant State and Territory law reform is the most significant since water resources statutes were first enacted over a century ago. The Commonwealth itself has also legislated in a major way with the Water Act 2007. Most of the impetus for the development of the national policy and the primary focus of the legal reforms has, of course, been the Murray Darling Basin. The flow of reform will reach a new peak with the release of the draft Basin Plan under the Water Act 2007 (Cth), presently proposed for November 2011. Although the crescendo of community concerns aroused by the release of the Guide to the Proposed Basin Plan in October 2010 has subsided, and the stress of drought has been relieved by the rains of the past year, the draft Basin Plan will be scrutinised very carefully by all sections of the community. Legal and policy questions will abound about whether and how the Basin Plan will achieve its statutory purposes: especially that purpose ‘to promote the use and management of the Basin water resources in a way that optimises economic, social and environmental outcomes’. This national conference—the first major water law conference held in Canberra for many years—will identify and explore those questions. |
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Australian Centre for Environmental Law |
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