Meeting News Bulletin

13th Indigenous Water Policy Group Meeting

“The 13th Indigenous Water Policy Group (IWPG) meeting reminds us that the challenges we face on water policy in northern Australia are complex, time consuming and require substantial commitment from all governments to support Indigenous futures”, said Joe Morrison, NAILSMA CEO, in his opening remarks.

The Indigenous Water Policy Group (IWPG) convened its 13th Meeting in Broome from 18 to 20 April 2011 to further develop and implement the NAILSMA Indigenous Water Policy Statement (Nov 2009). This included discussing the set-up and management of a Strategic Indigenous Reserve (SIR) for future commercial use of water by Indigenous people across north Australia, and reviewing progress of the IWPG Strategic Plan (2010-12).

A Strategic Indigenous Reserve (SIR) provides an amount of water to Indigenous groups in a plan area for economic development.

Members of the Policy Engagement Group (PEG) participated in one session of the meeting co-chaired by the Western Australia Department of Water. Discussions focussed on how State and Territory government water agencies have progressed the SIR in water planning processes.

The NAILSMA Indigenous Water Policy Statement (Nov 2009) states that, “any water plans in tropical Australia must, irrespective of historical allocation, include an equitable Indigenous allocation from the consumptive pool for commercial purposes”. Both the Northern Territory and Queensland Government water agencies have included conditions in some of their water plans for an SIR, however it continues to be a missing element of Western Australian water plans.

The IWPG is working with government and community interest groups to define and quantify SIRs in regional water allocation plans. Dr. William Nikolakis of Australian National University presented findings from his research on SIR case studies in the Mataranka and Daly regions at the meeting. The IWPG SIR Steering Group is using this research to develop a discussion paper on the SIR. The discussion paper will provide a platform for community discussions and lead government policies relating to Indigenous commercial water allocations. Dr Nikolakis will begin similar research in Queensland later this year on behalf of NAILSMA.

The IWPG plans to next meet around August 2011. Keep posted by checking the IWPG web page.

Photo: Attendees at the 13th IWPG Meeting in Broome, April 2011. NAILSMA © 2011.
 
For more information about the IWPG visit the NAILSMA website.

The IWPG is funded by the National Water Commission.

Media contact: Robin.Macgillivray@cdu.edu.au | Project Contact: water@cdu.edu.au