In its submission to the Productivity Commission the LGAQ says water reform needs a greater vision if government and industry are going to meet community water needs in a changing environment.
A challenge, the LGAQ says, can be faced by better incorporation of data, technology, the reformation of a Water Commission and an information savvy workforce.
The submission stated, “A greater vision of future challenges and encouraging the means to deal with them is needed as a matter of priority. The focus on current water pricing and management arrangements only partially deals with the more fundamental problem of supplying a limited resource that will change in availability and use in the near future.”
“While water plans, registers, trading markets, and pricing are all relevant for contemporaneous water issues, they are not providing a future vision and the steps by which to achieve that vision for the Australia of 2040 and beyond.”
Additionally, whilst the LGAQ stated there was significant room for policy reform, the submission acknowledged the progress already achieved.
“Australia’s water sector reform has had many benefits. Most importantly, the National Water Initiative has established a national vision, defined principles and objectives, and shaped a nationally consistent framework for discussion about water services.”
This inquiry is the first of the Productivity Commission inquiries under the Water Act 2007 and the first since the Water Commission was disbanded by the Federal Government in 2014.
In the issue paper released in March this year, Associate Water Commissioner John Madden said the focus of the inquiry was around ensuring water policy was centred produced an industry that was resilient in an uncertain future.
"This inquiry will not simply ask and answer 'have we done well to date'. It will also focus on the future challenges to ensure our water policy settings are future proof," Mr Madden said.
"Climate change and climate variability, population growth and ageing water infrastructure are looming challenges."
Read the LGAQ's submission to the Productivity Commission here.