National Water Initiative
In 2004, the Northern Territory (NT) became a signatory to the intergovernmental agreement on a National Water Initiative.
The objectives of the National Water Initiative (NWI) are to increase the productivity and efficiency of Australia’s water use, while returning surface and groundwater systems to environmentally sustainable levels of extraction.
Read more about the NWI on the Australia Government's Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water website.
Implementation
The NT has made significant progress towards implementing the elements of the NWI that are relevant to water resources and communities in the NT.
This includes:
- significant legislative reform
- statutory protection of water entitlement
- widespread water planning
- implementation of strategic aboriginal water reserves
- removal of licensing exemptions for minerals and petroleum industries
- significant advances in scientific research of water and ecological systems
- transparent reporting on compliance and enforcement activities.
Progress
In 2021, the Productivity Commission published a report assessing the implementation progress of the NWI in all jurisdictions. Read more about it on the Productivity Commission website.
In 2023, Badu Advisory carried out a review of the NT’s implementation of the NWI specifically around water planning. Read this review PDF (864.1 KB).
Read the department's response to the review and plans to improve.