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The Northern Territory government has faced severe criticism for planning to remove a legal requirement that water must be allocated to the environment. Conservationists and Indigenous representatives have condemned the move as an extreme measure that prioritizes industry expansion over natural ecosystems.
Criticism from Conservation and Indigenous Groups
The proposed legislative changes are part of a broader government strategy that includes expanding fracking, datacentres, and agricultural projects. Kirsty Howey, the chief executive of the Wilderness Society, told World news | The Guardian that the policy shift was exceptionally extreme even for the current Northern Territory Country Liberal party (CLP) administration under Chief Minister Lia Finocchiaro. Howey urged federal environment minister Murray Watt to withhold commonwealth water funding should the bill pass into law.
Les Turner, chief executive of the Central Land Council representing Indigenous people in the southern half of the territory, stated that the regional government was attempting to covertly eliminate remaining public protections regarding water management. Turner noted that the plan actively undermines community aspirations for transparent water laws and ignores Aboriginal voices across the region. He also referenced a recent high court decision from August that quashed the territory government’s unlawful granting of the Singleton Station licence, warning that future high-water consumers like datacentres might exploit lax regulations.
Proposed Changes to Water Legislation
The legislation aims to eliminate the legal mandate for water allocation plans to set aside water to sustain rivers, springs, wetlands, and dependent ecosystems. Additional planned alterations include removing a rule requiring total industrial water use to stay beneath limits set in allocation plans, dropping a mandate for water resource management to comply with those plans, and weakening the definition of estimated sustainable yield.
Howey described the policy as a blatant effort to trade regional aquifers and rivers for short-term financial gains benefiting the gas, agriculture, and technology sectors. Bree Ahrens, executive director of the Environment Centre NT, characterized the legislation as a smash and grab bill that places nature last. Ahrens called on the federal government under Prime Minister Anthony Albanese to refuse transferring national environmental decision-making powers to the territory government.
Government Defense and Prior Reforms
Northern Territory environment minister Joshua Burgoyne rejected claims that the bill dismantles environmental safeguards, maintaining that the core framework of related laws remains intact. Burgoyne stated that the administration remains focused on facts rather than fearmongering tactics from environmental lobby groups, pointing to actions like the extension of the Limmen Bight marine park as proof of a track record in environmental protection.
The latest water bill follows several prior environmental and climate rollbacks enacted since the CLP came to power, which include abandoning a 43% emissions reduction target by 2030, scrapping the local renewable energy target, and creating a territory coordinator position authorized to override 32 laws to fast-track developments. Federal environment minister Murray Watt declined to comment on the matter.
