Reporting jurisdictional progress on groundwater reforms
National Groundwater Committee, prepared by Salient Solutions Australia
Department of the Environment and Heritage, 2000
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About the report
The 1994 Water Reform Agreement required ARMCANZ to provide advice to jurisdictions on improvement in groundwater management, with particular reference to pricing of groundwater. To meet this requirement, a Policy Position Paper: Allocation and Use of Groundwater, A National Framework for Improved Groundwater Management in Australia was prepared by the Subcommittee on Water Resources and the COAG Task Force on Water Reform. It was subsequently accepted by ARMCANZ and published in December 1996.
The Policy Position Paper contained 12 recommendations, implementation of which was adopted in the 1996 Water Reform Agreement.
In early 1999, SCARM approved a proposal for the National Groundwater Committee (NGC) to assist the States/Territories to implement the report's recommendations and to monitor and report on progress.
SCARM recognised that the proposal is for the purpose of assisting national and State agencies to implement the recommendations; and that the implementation timeframe may be varied according to individual State priorities and may differ from that recommended.
The National Groundwater Committee, as part of its assistance endorsed by SCARM , developed a series of tasks under each of the recommendations that would enable jurisdictions to better progress towards the implementation of the recommendations. Part of the monitoring of the performance of jurisdictions in the implementation of the Water Reform Recommendations, and in the implementation of groundwater management reform generally, was to establish a reporting mechanism, over three years, where progress could be measured.
This report, the first of three, details jurisdictional progress against those 12 recommendations and provides a benchmark for jurisdictions to assess progress over time - two additional annual reports are planned.
Appendix A details the current definition of Sustainable Yield as agreed by NGC. Appendix B details the report by the National Uniform Drillers Licencing Committee to NGC. The report also lists progress against the subsidiary tasks devised by NGC (Appendix C).
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