New Water Policy and Practice Volume 1, Number 2 - Spring 2015 | Page 79

New Water Policy and Practice

The Bill provided for the establishment of new bodies and committees under
the Water Agencies (Powers) Act, including a Water Resources Council24; a Water
Resources Ministerial Body25; and advisory committees (including the continuation
of the Advisory Committee for the Purity of Water (ACPOW)—nominally overseen
and chaired by the Department of Health (DoH). In addition, the Bill transferred the
functions of the WRC and water catchment management authorities and areas created
under the Water Conservation Act (1976) to the Minister, thus making the Minister for
Water responsible for the conservation of waters and their associated land (Glindemann
and Chung 2006). The COAG (2008)26 provided further impetus for WA to continue
reforms with new legislation introduced within a national urban water reform
framework. This legislation was targeted at consolidating existing water legislation and
underpins the proposed water reforms, such as the statutory water management plans.
This legislation repealed and replaced powers instituted under the Rights in Water and
Irrigation Act 1914 and a range of other water-related legislation.

Therefore in WA, the water reform program progressed quickly over the next
two years, and was significantly modified to meet the WAs Implementation Plan for the
NWI (Reinmuth and Glindemann 2011). Water entitlements and land interests were
further separated so that access to land will not be a pre-requisite to holding a water
access entitlement, with basic landholder rights relating to taking water for livestock
and riparian purposes altered to reflect the requirements of the NWI. The statutory
water management plans set out the water entitlements for an area, with these plans will
include information on: an area’s water resources and environmental water allocations;
how risk is to be allocated if the consumptive pool changes; the applicable local water
trading rules; how over-allocated systems are to be dealt with and issues specific to
that area; with the potential to move to a market-based allocation mechanism once
allocation levels exceed 70% of the identified limit (Reinmuth and Glindemann 2011).

Furthermore, the NWC, whose role is to oversee the national water reforms,
issued a report in 2011 on the implementation of the NWIs, recommended that all
governments should refresh their commitment to water regulatory reform program
(Reinmuth and Lynch 2013). Again providing support for new state initiatives at the
National level. Significantly, the Productivity Commission in its 2011 (Productivity and
24

The Water Resources Council is responsible for providing advice to the Minister on policy and
planning issues and is comprised of up to eight members appointed by the Minister who together will
have expertise across a wide range of areas including conservation, economic development, community interests, mining and agriculture. The council empowered under amendments to Water Agencies
(Powers) Act 1984; through the Water Resources Legislation Amendment Act 2007 Pt. 6; 38 of 2007;
December 21, 2007; February 1, 2008 (see s. 2(2) and Gazette, January 31, 2008, p. 251).
25
The Water Resources Ministerial Body is a body corporate that acts as a mechanism through which
the Minister will be able to exercise his powers in relation to dealings in land, property, or assets; act as
an agent of the Crown and attract Crown immunity; however, the ‘Body’ itself has no specified functions.
26
COAG, Council of Australian Governments’ Meeting, November 29, 2008, Climate Change and Water,
http://www.coag.gov.au/coag_meeting_outcomes/2008-11-29/index.cfm (accessed April 20, 2015).

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