Background Paper and Literature Review,
2007
Author: Sue Jackson (CSIRO)
This report is an extended version of a review
of current knowledge of relevance to the implementation of the
National Water Initiative (NWI),
Indigenous interests in Tropical Rivers 2006. This extended
version of that report has been produced for the North Australian
Indigenous Water Policy Group (IWPG). It is intended to provide
background to understanding the Australian water sector, its
institutional arrangements and recent policy reforms. This
understanding should assist in the consideration of Indigenous
water rights and interests in relation to the NWI, the scoping of
research topics of interest to NAILSMA and the IWPG, and to the
group's policy development process.
The report, in five parts, provides the following:
- An overview of the water resource sector, its key features and
the resource management problems driving the raft of changes
witnessed since the early 1990s
- A description of the current institutional arrangements,
including the background to the NWI, particularly the reform of the
1990s, Australia's water resource law and management responses and
structures
- An analysis of the NWI and its treatment of Indigenous
interests, outlining the information base available to assist in
implementing this key policy
- A commentary on some of the problems being experienced in the
definition and incorporation of Indigenous interests and values in
water planning
- A preliminary identification of knowledge gaps and areas of
interest for future research
In the latter sections, the report provides a review of the
literature relating to Australian Indigenous interests in water
policy and management and discusses the issues that may affect the
degree to which Indigenous people benefit from the NWI.
