New South Wales Irrigators’ Council says today’s NSW Auditor-General’s performance audit into water management and regulation validates concerns water users have raised for years about regulatory complexity, government system shortcomings, and the implementation of water policy in New South Wales.
NSWIC CEO Dr Madeleine Hartley said the report confirms what the irrigation industry has long argued: that increased complexity in laws and processes with government agencies, not water users, are undermining confidence in water management and regulation.
“The Auditor General’s report identifies serious concerns in water management, including duplication between agencies, inconsistent advice to water users, and poor data governance,” Dr Hartley said.
“Importantly, the Auditor General found that a lack of clarity between the Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment, and Water (DCCEEW), WaterNSW, and NRAR has resulted in water users receiving incorrect or conflicting advice about their obligations, making the journey to compliance unnecessarily difficult.
“Water users have invested heavily for many years to comply with successive rounds of water reform and compliance obligations. Yet they continue to navigate an increasingly complex system marred by new laws and obligations and reduced system efficiency, while also funding the operations of key water agencies through user-pays fees and charges.
“Enough is enough. After nearly a decade of continual reform, the NSW government agencies involved in water management need to pause their current reform agenda and take stock of the findings of this report”.
Dr Hartley said the report should serve as a wake-up call for government agencies and provide a practical roadmap forward for reform.
“The independent Audit Office has delivered a comprehensive and scathing assessment of how the current settings operate. It is an opportunity to get water management back on a coordinated path to success,” Dr Hartley said.
“The path forward must be in collaboration with water users, to ensure practical and staged reforms, not the crisis management approach we’ve seen in the last decade.
Dr. Madeleine Hartley is available for media interviews.
MEDIA CONTACT: Anthea Gregory | 0493 968 631
For Media Background Only
NSWIC and many member organisations have made nine submissions this year across multiple state and federal policies, some of which are duplicative. This report comes at a time when water users in NSW are facing potentially unsustainable price increases from IPART, who is due to release its final determination into WaterNSW prices before 30 June 2026.
