Document
Index
1999-2000 Ministerial Statements
Investing in our Natural and
Cultural Heritage
Chapter 6
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Document
Index |
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| Key Points: |
Council of Australian Governments Water Reform Framework
In February 1994, the Council of Australian Governments (COAG) consisting of the Prime Minister, Premiers, Chief Ministers and the President of the Australian Local Government Association agreed to implement a ‘strategic framework to achieve an efficient and sustainable water industry’.
Table 6.1: Inland Waters—Programme and Tax Expenditure Estimates
| Description | 1998-99 |
1999-00 |
2000-01 |
2001-02 |
2002-03 |
|
| PROGRAMME AND TAX EXPENDITURE ESTIMATES | ||||||
| Rivers | ||||||
| National Rivercare Programme(a) | 19.2 |
21.7 |
24.6 |
15.6 |
– |
|
| National River Health Programme(b) | 4.7 |
3.1 |
4.5 |
1.8 |
– |
|
| Fisheries Action Programme, inland waters(c) | 0.8 |
1.1 |
1.1 |
0.8 |
– |
|
| Waterwatch Australia(d) | 2.8 |
2.6 |
2.6 |
2.6 |
– |
|
| Tasmanian Regional Environment Remediation Programme |
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Murray-Darling Basin | ||||||
| Murray-Darling 2001 | 40.4 |
43.1 |
48.7 |
32.6 |
– |
|
| Wetlands | ||||||
| National Wetlands Programme | 4.1 |
3.8 |
3.8 |
3.8 |
– |
|
| Assessment, research and monitoring | ||||||
| Living Cities Programme | ||||||
| Urban Waterwatch | – |
4.0 |
4.0 |
4.0 |
– |
|
| Urban River Health Programme | – |
0.5 |
1.0 |
0.5 |
– |
|
| National Land and Water Audit(e) | ||||||
| CSIRO (total)(f) | 11.6 |
11.8 |
na |
na |
na |
|
| Nutrient and pollution transport | 3.3 |
3.4 |
na |
na |
na |
|
| Surface water management | 2.1 |
2.1 |
na |
na |
na |
|
| Groundwater management | 1.0 |
1.0 |
na |
na |
na |
|
| Land and water contamination | 2.8 |
2.9 |
na |
na |
na |
|
| Waste utilisation | 1.3 |
1.3 |
na |
na |
na |
|
| Urban water systems | 1.1 |
1.1 |
– |
– |
– |
|
| CRC for Catchment Hydrology | 2.0 |
2.2 |
2.6 |
2.6 |
2.6 |
|
| CRC for Freshwater Ecology | 2.2 |
2.0 |
2.4 |
2.4 |
2.1 |
|
| CRC for Water Quality and Treatment | 2.3 |
2.7 |
2.7 |
2.6 |
– |
|
| Bureau of Meteorology(g) | 0.8 |
0.6 |
0.6 |
0.6 |
0.6 |
|
| International development cooperation | ||||||
| International water supply and sanitation | 38.0 |
30.2 |
27.7 |
17.4 |
na |
|
– denotes nil;
na denotes not available
The resultant COAG Water Reform Framework highlights the need for concerted action at both the economic and environmental level to reform the water industry and to minimise unsustainable use.
The COAG Water Reform Framework was subsequently linked in April 1995 to the National Competition Policy drawing the water industry more closely into the microeconomic reform process. The time frames for implementation of the Framework were set at five to seven years with full implementation by the year 2001.
Critical environmental water issues are addressed in the Water Reform Framework and include: allocation of water for the environment; ecologically sustainability of new developments; institutional reform; the incorporation of environmental costs in water pricing; ecologically sustainable water trading; protection of groundwater; and implementation of the National Water Quality Management Strategy.
The Government’s National River Health Programme is assisting the achievement of these goals and objectives.
Contact: Environment Australia, Biodiversity Group
— 02 6274 2254
Contact: Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry, Australia — 02 6272 6542
Water is an integral part of the environment and the basis of many human activities, yet it is increasingly threatened by nutrient enrichment and algal blooms, salinisation, disruptions to hydrological processes, increased sediment loads, pesticides and heavy metal contamination, loss of aquatic biodiversity and invasion by foreign plant and animal species.
The National Rivercare Programme (NRP) aims to address this situation by promoting activities that contribute toward the sustainable management, rehabilitation and conservation of inland rivers outside the Murray-Darling Basin. The Murray-Darling 2001 Programme addresses high priority water quality and river health issues inside the Murray-Darling Basin.
The NRP involves a coordinated and integrated package of actions involving the community and other stakeholders who can make a contribution to river management. This approach recognises the importance of a number of strands of activity: community awareness and on-ground actions, as well as, targeted research and demonstration activities.
The central part of the NRP is the implementation of on-ground activities. Through this component the NRP seeks to encourage the development of strategic, targeted responses to address identified regional priorities for the management, rehabilitation and health of Australia’s inland rivers.
| Box 6.1: National
Rivercare Programme The aim of the National Rivercare Programme is to ensure progress towards sustainable management, rehabilitation and conservation of rivers outside the Murray-Darling Basin and to improve the health of these rivers. The objectives will be achieved by working with all levels of government, industry and the community to:
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The Commonwealth provided funding of $14.2 million for on-ground activities as part of the NRP in 1998-99 which allowed community groups, local and State Governments to start work in improving the protection, management and rehabilitation of inland rivers. Of the $14.2 million, $3 million was provided for 107 new community group projects, $2.5 million for 30 new State agency projects and $2 million for 34 new projects by other types of organisations such as local government and regional organisations. There was also $1.5 million provided for 47 continuing community group projects, $3.8 million for 34 continuing State agency projects and $1.4 million for continuing projects of other types of organisations such as local government and regional organisations.
Contact: Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry, Australia — 02 6272 3932
National River Health Programme
It is clear that in many of Australia’s rivers and groundwater systems the unsustainable use of water is threatening environmental and productive values. Given the consequences of the adoption of inappropriate policies and practices, it is imperative that such decisions are made on the basis of the best available information and expertise. Through the $15.8 million, six-year, National River Health Programme, including $3.1 million in 1999-2000, a significant investment is being made to identify priorities to protect and repair the health of Australian rivers.
This is being achieved through the programme’s two sub-components:
Waterwatch Australia is a national programme, which operates in every State and Territory. It coordinates and supports the monitoring of our waterways by schools and community groups, aiming to promote community action to address water quality and aquatic biodiversity issues and to achieve healthy waterways.
The programme assists the community to establish water quality and aquatic biodiversity monitoring networks, which collect meaningful information. This information is shared with catchment managers and other sectors of the community. The network is assisted by the appointment of regional coordinators who feed the information collected into local and catchment management planning processes, so that all data is interpreted in the context of the whole catchment.
Most recently, Waterwatch Australia has developed national monitoring guidelines and protocols and data management tools to ensure consistency in the collection and interpretation of data across the 4,000 Australian sites where Waterwatch groups are operating.
The Commonwealth provided approximately $2.2 million in 1998-99 for 66 Waterwatch Australia projects through the Natural Heritage Trust ‘one-stop-shop’. Most of these projects are community-based, regional coordination projects that provide support and training to community Waterwatch networks.
In 1999-2000, approximately $2.2 million will also be provided to community projects through the ‘one-stop-shop’. Many of these projects will be a continuation of those funded in 1998-99. In addition, $4 million will be provided through Urban Waterwatch.
Contact: Environment Australia, Biodiversity Group — 02 6274 2777
The Murray-Darling Basin is Australia’s most important agricultural region and also contains much of the nation’s ‘natural capital’, including 24 major river systems and over 30,000 wetlands. Development in the Basin has come however at a high cost to its environmental resources, with substantial changes to the natural flow regimes of the rivers, deterioration in aquatic ecosystems, and major land degradation including irrigation induced salinity and dryland salinity due to overclearing.
The Murray-Darling 2001 Programme is primarily concerned with developing a coordinated and integrated set of actions to address the health of the Basin’s river systems. The Programme is delivered through an institutional framework established under the Murray-Darling Basin Initiative which has brought together six governments and the community in a unique partnership. A distinguishing feature of the Initiative, has been a focus on promoting integrated catchment management by encouraging investment to be delivered through community and government regional strategies and action plans based primarily on catchments.
The primary focus of the Murray-Darling 2001 programme is the implementation of strategic integrated on-ground activities that address high priority issues impacting on environmental flows, water quality, and the ecological health and diversity of the Basin’s river systems and aquatic environments. Land use and management practices by landholders within catchments, particularly those associated with irrigation and dryland farming systems, are a major contributing factor to aquatic health and are an integral part of this integrated catchment management approach.
The Commonwealth provided funding of $36.6 million for new and continuing projects under Murray-Darling 2001 in 1998-99. Under the special cost-sharing arrangements for projects funded through the Murray-Darling 2001 Programme, State Governments within the Basin have agreed to match (in cash) the Commonwealth’s contribution. Of the Commonwealth’s funding $16 million was provided to 197 new projects through the ‘one-stop-shop’ process, with $20.6 million provided for the continuation of 255 existing projects.
An amount of $13 million has been specifically allocated from the Murray-Darling 2001 Programme over the life of the Trust to provide for improved environmental flows and implementation of management strategies to regenerate native fish populations and combat European carp in the Murray-Darling Basin. Commonwealth funding to address these objectives is delivered through the MD 2001 FishRehab Programme, which is not part of the Natural Heritage Trust ‘one-stop-shop’ and does not require matching funding from the States. The Commonwealth approved funding of $2.8 million for new and continuing projects under this programme in 1998-99.
Contact: Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry, Australia — 02 6272 5502
| Box 6.2: Murray-Darling
Basin 2001 The aim of the Murray-Darling 2001 Programme is to improve the health of the Basin’s river systems and other aquatic environments through an integrated approach to the management of the land, water and other environmental resources. Working with all levels of government, industry and the community through an agreed institutional approach, Murray-Darling 2001 aims to:
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The Commonwealth has been progressing a range of initiatives under the National Wetlands Programme (NWP) which implement the Commonwealth Wetlands Policy and support Australia’s obligations under the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands and bilateral migratory bird agreements with Japan and China. The Programme promotes the conservation, repair and wise use of wetlands across Australia.
The Natural Heritage Trust partnership agreements signed between the Commonwealth and respective States and Territories set the framework for the delivery of the National Wetlands Programme and provides for:
The Commonwealth will provide $3.8 million to the National Wetlands Programme in 1999-2000. A priority of the Programme is the development of a comprehensive national wetland inventory by the year 2000. A total of $340,000 was allocated in 1998-99 to conduct surveys to identify important wetlands or to update State and Territory chapters of the second edition of A Directory of Important Wetlands in Australia. This information will be included in a third edition scheduled for release in late 1999.
Through the 1998-99 round of funding from the Natural Heritage Trust’s ‘one-stop-shop’, the Commonwealth allocated over $1.6 million to 90 wetlands projects. Nearly half of these were community-based projects to carry out on-ground works to rehabilitate and manage wetlands and to support awareness raising of wetland conservation issues.
| Box 6.3: Gwydir
Wetlands On 2 February 1999, World Wetlands Day, a group of landholders of the Gwydir Wetlands near Moree, NSW, signed a Memorandum of Understanding that balances conservation with sustainable grazing. The Memorandum outlines the ecological and grazing values of the wetlands, establishes an agreed management framework, and recommends the Gwydir Wetlands be listed as a Wetland of International Importance under the Ramsar Convention. The Gwydir Wetlands, when listed under the Ramsar Convention at the Seventh Conference of Parties to the Convention in May 1999 at Costa Rica, will be the first voluntary private Ramsar site in Australia. The Memorandum was also signed by the World Wide Fund for Nature, the New South Wales National Parks Association, and State and Commonwealth Governments. |
Assessment, Research and Monitoring
The Living Cities Programme is a new measure which addresses urban environmental problems, recognising that Australia’s environmental problems are not restricted to regional and rural areas (see Chapter 7). The Urban Waterways component of the programme will provide a total of $4.5 million in 1999-2000 to expand the Natural Heritage Trust’s Waterwatch programme within urban areas and to establish a national monitoring regime for Urban River Health.
The CSIRO’s water research supports the Government’s investment in sustainable natural resource management and is closely linked with its research on land degradation (see Chapter 5). Allocations in 1999-00 include:
In addition, the CSIRO has commenced a new project aiming to stimulate a radical re-consideration of the way that urban water systems are designed, equipped and managed. The technologies and approaches envisaged in future sustainable water systems will have environmental benefits. The CSIRO will commit $2.2 million to this work for the years 1999-00 and 2000-2001.
Contact: CSIRO — 02 6276 6124
In 1998-99, the Commonwealth provided $2 million to the Cooperative Research Centre (CRC) for Catchment Hydrology towards research aimed at improving our understanding of catchment hydrology and its application to water management issues, concentrating particularly on salinity problems, water yield, waterway management, control of sediments and nutrients, and flood estimation and forecasting. The Commonwealth also provided $2.2 million to the CRC for Freshwater Ecology for research on ecological sustainability and management of Australian temperate region surface waters and a further $2.3 million to the CRC for Water Quality and Treatment towards research aimed at assisting the Australian water industry to deliver quality drinking water to consumers.
Contact: CRC Secretariat — 02 6213 6429
The Bureau of Meteorology provides advice to government and others on a wide range of hydrometeorological issues related to the assessment, planning, development and operational aspects of water resources assessment. It operates, in conjunction with State and Territory water agencies, a network of benchmark stream flow gauging stations and associated climate stations suitable for detecting changes and trends associated with climate variability and change. It also provides an international focus, through UNESCO and the World Meteorological Organization, for information on Australia’s water resources.
Contact: Bureau of Meteorology — 02 6274 1764
International Development Cooperation
Australia’s overseas aid programme spent $2.2 million in the 1998-99 financial year on bilateral and regional wetland projects worth a total of $9.6 million. Australia also contributed to the Global Environment Facility and South Pacific Regional Environment Programme, under which important wetlands activities are being implemented.
Contact: AusAID — 02 62206 4566
It is estimated that 2.9 billion people worldwide lack adequate sanitation facilities and around 25 million people die each year of water-related diseases. Poor hygiene and contaminated water account for 80 per cent of diseases in developing countries. Globally, the quality of water continues to decline due to industrial pollution, poor land use planning, and the inappropriate disposal of waste.
The Australian aid programme, which operates within a framework of economic and environmental sustainability, is reducing the effects of poor water quality and supply by helping to improve water resource management and increasing access to clean water in developing countries.
During the 1998-99 financial year, Australia spent $38 million assisting developing countries to improve water supplies, sanitation, waste disposal facilities, and water resource management. The majority of this assistance was focused on the Asia-Pacific region and ranged in scope from support for the construction of community-managed wells and latrines to the development of sustainable water resource management policies and institutions at the national level.
| Box 6.4: Australian
Support for Cleaner Production Australia’s aid programme is funding a $4.8 million project under the ASEAN-Australia Economic Cooperation Programme to reduce the level of waste generated, and to improve the quality of water discharged from textile, food processing and distilling industries in ASEAN countries. By demonstrating cleaner production technologies, waste minimisation, and waste treatment techniques, the project is expected to result in industry adopting cleaner production methods including total catchment management, efficient water use, and recycling. |
Examples of projects funded through the Australian aid programme include:
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