Arabic version: ملاحقات سرقة المياه في نيو ساوث ويلز تواجه غموضاً بشأن التراخيص

According to The Guardian, the New South Wales water regulator has raised doubts about its ability to prosecute potential large-scale water theft because of uncertainty over floodplain harvesting licences governing billions of litres of water in the state’s north.

The concerns follow the Emu Rider case, in which the NSW land and environment court found that 11 floodplain harvesting licences issued by the former Coalition government were invalid. The court found the government had not followed correct procedures concerning fair consultation with landholders. Floodplain harvesting is the collection and storage by farmers of water flowing across floodplains, with licences setting extraction limits.

Grant Barnes, chief regulatory officer at the Natural Resources Access Regulator, told a parliamentary estimates committee that the Emu Rider decision and another supreme court matter had created “uncertainties” for enforcement. He said the agency must meet a high burden of proof and assess each situation to determine whether it can substantiate a breach of law.

In a separate challenge by major irrigator Budvalt, the NSW supreme court found that the volume of water extraction permitted by a licence had been inaccurately determined and ordered the government to recalculate it. Two further proceedings challenging licences in the Border Rivers and Gwydir Valley regions were filed in NSW courts this month.

Water lawyer and South Australian Murray River commissioner Emma Carmody said other licences could be vulnerable if the same defective process had been used. NSW water minister Rose Jackson said the government intended to change the floodplain harvesting regulatory framework following the legal decisions. Barnes said the uncertainty constrained prosecutions over alleged floodplain harvesting licence breaches, but did not affect enforcement of other breaches or the regulator’s ability to monitor water take.