Review a water decision

You can apply to the minister to seek a review of an action or decision made under the water legislation.

Before you apply

Before you apply, read the procedure for review applications and referrals DOCX (197.4 KB).

How to apply

To seek a review of a decision made under the Water Act 1992, follow these steps:

Step 1. Fill in the review of action or decision form DOCX (62.2 KB).

Step 2. Submit the completed form to secretariat.depws@nt.gov.au.

Your application won't accepted unless you have used the above form.

Timeframes

You must submit the completed form within 30 days from the date the decision was notified.

Unless the decision was to issue a remediation notice, in which case the timeframe is 14 days.

After you apply

You will be sent an email to advise your review application has been received.

If your review application is complete, you will be sent another email with a reference number.

If your application is against an action or decision of the Controller of Water Resources, the minister may decide to:

• uphold the action or decision
• substitute a new decision or
• refer the matter back to the Controller of Water Resources.

Review panel

Rather than make a decision up front, the minister may refer the application to the Water Resources Review Panel.

The review panel will then hold one or more hearings to consider the application.

You will be advised of hearing dates and may be asked to appear to present your application and answer questions.

The review panel will provide its advice to the minister in a report.

Minister's final decision

When an application is referred to the review panel, the minister’s final decision must be made within a month of receiving the panel’s report.

In that time, the minister will undertake a merits review of the original decision and consider the report as part of that review.

The minister may decide to:

• uphold the action or decision or
• substitute a new decision.

You will receive a letter from the minister advising of the final decision.

More information

To find out more, read section 30 of the Water Act 1992 and regulation 4 of the Water Regulations 1992.

You can also email secretariat.depws@nt.gov.au