Changes to water legislation

The Northern Territory (NT) Government is responsible for taking care of water resources in a sustainable way.

The primary tool to manage and protect water in the NT is the Water Act 1992 and the Water Regulations 1992.

Sometimes, the government makes changes to these rules to make them better and meet the community's expectations.

This page summarises these recent changes and current transitional arrangements.

In the future, the government plans to update the Water Act and create new laws for safe drinking water.

This is a step towards improving how water is managed sustainably in the NT, as described in the Territory Water Plan.

2025 changes to the Act

The Water Amendment (Aboriginal Water Reserve) Bill 2025 has come into effect.

It includes key changes that aim to simplify the Aboriginal water reserve process for Aboriginal economic development.

These changes include:

setting criteria for designating eligible land
clarifying and streamlining consultation requirements
removing consent provisions
enabling the Controller of Water Resources to grant a water extraction licence if he or she are satisfied that the applicant:
- is an eligible Aboriginal person or
- has an agreement with the eligible Aboriginal people.

The 4 key changes are:

separating powers between the minister and the water controller
moving the review functions from the minister to the NT Civil and Administrative Tribunal, which reviews decisions under multiple pieces of legislation
strengthening enforcement powers to ensure people comply with the Act
a streamlined licensing process to make it clearer.

The 3 key changes were:

setting a 2-year timeframe to transition existing mining activities into the Act
setting a 2-year timeframe to finish the transition of previously exempt water users in the Darwin rural water control district into the licensing system
giving the minister the power to declare restricted water extraction areas where water resources are at risk.