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Department of Agriculture

Breadcrumb

  1. Home
  2. Water
  3. Water policy and resources
  4. Murray–Darling Basin
  5. Murray–Darling Basin policy
  6. Review of the Water for the Environment Special Account

Sidebar first - Water

  • Murray–Darling Basin policy
    • Independent assessment of the social and economic conditions in the Basin
    • Review of the Water for the Environment Special Account

Review of the Water for the Environment Special Account

The Water for the Environment Special Account (WESA) funds the recovery of environmental water in the Murray–Darling Basin. It has been established with $1.775 billion available over 10 years. Of this funding:

  • $1.575 billion is available to increase, by 30 June 2024, the volume of the Basin water resources that is available for environmental use by 450 gigalitres.
  • $200 million will help to ease or remove constraints to deliver the environmental water.

The Water Act 2007 provides for 2 reviews of the WESA. The first review was completed in March 2020.

Second review of WESA

The second review started in August 2021. It will evaluate whether the amount of funding credited to WESA is adequate to:

  • increase, by 30 June 2024, the volume of the Basin water resources that is available for environmental use by 450 GL; and
  • ease or remove constraints identified by the Murray-Darling Basin Authority on the capacity to deliver environmental water.

Independent panel

For continuity, the three members of the independent panel who completed the first review will undertake the second review guided by the scope of their terms of reference. 

The panel comprises of:

  • Mr Simon Lewis AO PSM (chair)
  • Ms Sally Farrier
  • Ms Merran Kelsall FCPA FCA.

The panellists have significant expertise and experience, including in Commonwealth water matters, policy, engineering, infrastructure, governance, audit, risk, finance, and the water sector.

The panel will build on their first review of WESA completed in March 2020 to inform the review, the panel will undertake targeted stakeholder consultation with government water agencies from New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia, Queensland and the ACT. The targeted consultation will allow the panel to gain an understanding of the progress made towards implementation of programs and individual projects contributing to water recovery.

First review of WESA

The first review of WESA was tabled in Federal Parliament out-of-session on 4 September 2020.

You can download the final report for the first review below.

Download

Document Pages File size
First Review of the Water for the Environment Special Account report PDF 56 1.2 MB
First Review of the Water for the Environment Special Account report DOCX 56 1.8 MB

If you have difficulty accessing this file, visit web accessibility for assistance.

The WESA review panel commissioned Marsden Jacob Associates to undertake a range of analysis to support their findings.

You can read their report is now available on the Marsden Jacob Associates website.

Australian Government response

You can read the Australian Government’s response to the first review of the Water for the Environment Special Account.

The response was tabled in Federal Parliament out-of-session on 2 October 2020.

The department has commenced actions implementing the panel’s findings, including through the Murray–Darling Communities Investment Package.

Independent panel

The first review review was conducted by an independent 3-member panel appointed in mid-2019.

The panel comprised of:

  • Ms Sally Farrier (chair)
  • Mr Simon Lewis AO PSM
  • Ms Merran Kelsall FCPA FCA.

Focus

As required under section 86AJ of the Water Act 2007, the panel considered whether the funds allocated to the WESA were enough to:

  • reach the target of 450 gigalitres of environmental water by 2024
  • ease or remove constraints to delivery of environmental water by 2024.

Consultation

The panel sought feedback from September to December 2019 through:

  • face-to-face meetings
  • an online survey
  • written submissions to a discussion paper.

Learn more about the public consultation process.

You can download a copy of the discussion paper.

Download

Document Pages File size
WESA review discussion paper PDF 18 1.4 MB

If you have difficulty accessing this file, visit web accessibility for assistance.

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Last updated: 29 October 2021

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We acknowledge the Traditional Owners of country throughout Australia and recognise their continuing connection to land, waters and culture. We pay our respects to their Elders past, present and emerging.