Kevin Linton
Managing Director at Lippy's Enterprises
I believe these type questions will create massive 'debate' in the near future and to some extent should be encouraged, as soon as possible. Alain has cited and provided credit to those that have outlined broadly the three large 'areas' of historical 'water law' in the world today; Saxon, Roman and Arabic.
Alain has also provided an indication on 'where he sits' on the privatisation or the development of 'water markets' by indicating that the 'Australian experiment' of developing water markets contributed to 'a poor situation' there.
Although, Australia is a Commonwealth country and British Common Law has been used for about 125 years, Australian Water Law has developed 'very much' on a 'needs basis' and for this reason water law in Australia is sometimes on the 'cutting edge' of development. This is only natural in a country that is the driest habited continent.
Australian water law had served the country well for about 100 years and some unique advantages enabled the country to become an agricultural exporter in this time. Times change however and irrigation infrastructure needed to be upgraded, over-use and waste of scarce water needed to be controlled and government and authorities found that by developing a new 'market structure' to facilitate the 'redistribution' of those resources (water) in an orderly way was the best solution.
The basic idea is this...water needs to be directed to the areas where maximum benefit can be derived at least cost while minimising damage to the environment.
There was a lot of scepticism at first, as rural (or Agricultural) water was linked to land for about a century and now it is a trade-able commodity. In the time since reform started, Australia has had a drought that lasted for about twelve years (the longest and most devastating since Europeans have been in Australia).
This drought, did not have the effect of reversing reform, but hastened it. Now that the drought has passed and the south eastern part of Australia has received some good seasons, some groups are now questioning whether the water allocations to environmental requirements need to be so large, but from apart from this, I believe most people (including farmers) are 'pretty happy' with the reforms.
I am therefore sorry that I must disappoint Alain in his negative assessment of the Australian 'experiment' and implementation of a rural 'water market'.
Kevin Linton
Managing Director at Lippy's Enterprises
I believe these type questions will create massive 'debate' in the near future and to some extent should be encouraged, as soon as possible. Alain has cited and provided credit to those that have outlined broadly the three large 'areas' of historical 'water law' in the world today; Saxon, Roman and Arabic.
Alain has also provided an indication on 'where he sits' on the privatisation or the development of 'water markets' by indicating that the 'Australian experiment' of developing water markets contributed to 'a poor situation' there.
Although, Australia is a Commonwealth country and British Common Law has been used for about 125 years, Australian Water Law has developed 'very much' on a 'needs basis' and for this reason water law in Australia is sometimes on the 'cutting edge' of development. This is only natural in a country that is the driest habited continent.
Australian water law had served the country well for about 100 years and some unique advantages enabled the country to become an agricultural exporter in this time. Times change however and irrigation infrastructure needed to be upgraded, over-use and waste of scarce water needed to be controlled and government and authorities found that by developing a new 'market structure' to facilitate the 'redistribution' of those resources (water) in an orderly way was the best solution.
The basic idea is this...water needs to be directed to the areas where maximum benefit can be derived at least cost while minimising damage to the environment.
There was a lot of scepticism at first, as rural (or Agricultural) water was linked to land for about a century and now it is a trade-able commodity. In the time since reform started, Australia has had a drought that lasted for about twelve years (the longest and most devastating since Europeans have been in Australia).
This drought, did not have the effect of reversing reform, but hastened it. Now that the drought has passed and the south eastern part of Australia has received some good seasons, some groups are now questioning whether the water allocations to environmental requirements need to be so large, but from apart from this, I believe most people (including farmers) are 'pretty happy' with the reforms.
I am therefore sorry that I must disappoint Alain in his negative assessment of the Australian 'experiment' and implementation of a rural 'water market'.