A comprehensive review, by FWU coordinator, Ian Douglas, of the implications and impacts of Australian water reform. Essential reading for anyone with an interest in the future of Australia's water resources; just published by ABC's The Drum.

"Australians are battling to come to terms with the impacts of the oft-criticised process of national water reform. The ongoing, abrasive debate surrounding the Basin Plan being drafted by the Murray-Darling Basin Authority, outrage over the spiralling costs of currently redundant desalination plants and public protests about sky-rocketing water charges typify the predicament . . ."

". . .  there are valid concerns that water reform is leaving crucial decisions, with respect to the “where”, “when” and “how” of water distribution, in the hands of entities whose priority is profit rather than socially and environmentally responsible water use. Questions are being raised as to why our governments have been prepared to implement these radical policies without seeking and obtaining prior electoral mandate and in the absence of adequate constitutional protection of water."