Australian Water Law History: The Move from Introspective State Sovereignty to a National Interest Approach and the Influence of International Law

Abstract

There are two types of water sovereignty in Australia. The first concerns state based sovereignty, and the socio-legal history of this will be outlined. The second is national sovereignty, and this has two aspects: the first includes the national accreditation of state-based water use regimes under the 2007 Water Act and the legislative instrument of the Murray Darling Basin Plan, which impacts on domestic freshwater use matters; the second aspect of national sovereignty concerns the regulation of foreign ownership of freshwater which is a national competency under the Foreign Investment and Takeover Act 1975. This chapter will discuss these types of sovereignty.

Keywords: water law, water sovereignty, Murray Darling Basin