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.
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 2020To 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 |
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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.