High And Dry: How Free Trade in Water will Cripple Australian Agriculture

Key Points on Water Policy:

• Measured per capita, Australia is the third most water rich nation on earth.
• Water is not a private good but a mixed good, with many public good characteristics. Its price curve is inelastic.
• Both FAO and World Bank research strongly argues that the primary allocation of water between sectors has to be done by governments and that it cannot be one by markets.
• Trading water from low to high value agriculture is a flawed concept
• Permanent water trade must be restricted to within irrigation regions, to avoid stranding of assets and collapse of regional economies.
• The science on the health of the Murray River is so poor that a Federal inquiry recommended that there be no allocation of environmental water until the necessary research is thoroughly completed.
• The National Water Commission must include experts on irrigation agriculture, so that the National Water Initiative can be properly and professionally overhauled.
• Governments must build new reservoirs.