Towards a New Ethic in Australian Water Law and Policy

Lee Godden

“The term ‘water crisis’ has entered the public lexicon of Australian society. A sense of impending water scarcity has been given critical urgency through growing recognition of climatic change in the amount, location and variability of rainfall due to anthropogenic warming of the atmosphere. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change 4th Report in 2007 identified water management and regulation as a key area of adaptation for sustainable responses to global warming. Climate change, ongoing drought and burgeoning cities have exacerbated the extent to which Australian society is struggling to live within the water limitations of the continent we inhabit. A land colonised, but incompletely assimilated, in regard to our expectations of the lifestyle that the environment can support …”