Water

Related Policies

Policy

Better manage and conserve our water in urban and regional areas.

"Melbourne could begin to experience chronic water shortages within about a decade, even if the desalination plant is cranked up to its full capacity, as climate change and population growth rapidly deplete the city's dams." The Age

Policy Methods (Federal & State)

To help achieve this Sustainable Australia Party will:

  • Facilitate reduced water use where possible, while achieving greater water reuse and recycling, particularly in commercial industry and agriculture operations
  • Protect environmental flows in all river systems to ensure that the quantity and quality of water sustains communities, including traditional owners, and entire river ecosystems
  • Allow floodplains to naturally rehydrate
  • Prioritise water for Australia’s environment, food security and local communities over export-related uses
  • Implement a public register listing all owners of water entitlements
  • Better monitoring, metering and reporting of water levels and irrigation diversions, including through satellite and drone imagery
  • Prefer crops with lower and minimal irrigation needs
  • Buy back water licenses from irrigators where required
  • Support all communities through an environmental job guarantee program (also see Job Guarantee policy)
  • Conduct a Federal Royal Commission into water management in the Murray–Darling Basin, to scientifically determine, among other things:
    • An appropriate cap on water diversions
    • An investigation of total return flows from irrigation water and total water actually delivered to the environment
    • The appropriateness of speculative water trading and commodification

“You don’t even need a DA to set up a nut farm... Where Victoria has put in a moratorium on permanent plantings, NSW is still rolling out the red carpet to these international investors." Michael West Media

    • Slow population growth then stabilise Australia’s population size as soon as practicable (also see Population & Immigration (Australia) policy)

"Around one million of this projected population growth is also expected to occur in Sydney’s West, whose water supply is already buckling." MacroBusiness

"All Sydney residents will see their water bills rise by 50 per cent... Sydney Water said the money would pay for the delivery of new infrastructure, such as pipes and treatment plants to new growth areas."

  • Implement a ban on all coal seam gas exploration and new coal mines, which among other things, threaten to pollute groundwater including within the Great Artesian Basin (also see Energy policy)