Earlier this year the Indigenous Water Policy
Group (IWPG) convened a Strategic Indigenous Reserve* (SIR)
Steering Group to discuss broad policy development of Indigenous
water allocations (SIR) in north Australian water plans. The
Steering Group is made up of prominent Indigenous leaders from
north Australia and leading water and legal research advisors.
The development of the SIR Steering Group was
a pragmatic response to government water reform policies to ensure
the economic opportunity of an SIR is considered in the development
of water plans in north Australia and is in line with the NAILSMA
Water Policy Statement that says:
‘Any water plan in tropical
Australia must, irrespective of historical allocation, include an
equitable Indigenous allocation from the consumptive pool for
commercial purposes.’
The SIR Steering group has spent the last
months considering policies to be included in relevant water reform
frameworks through regular convened meetings and their development
of an issues paper. The issues paper has been the précis for
the development of local IWPG delivered SIR case studies that in
turn have been used to inform local and northern policy
development.
In July this year, the SIR Steering Group met
face to face to consider local SIR case study outcomes in context
of broader policy framework and is now working on a developing an
SIR Policy Paper.
A draft of the policy paper will be delivered to the NAILSMA
IWPG later this year.
* NOTE: A Strategic Indigenous Reserve
(SIR) is an amount of water set aside in a water allocation
plan for Indigenous people in a water allocation plan area to
support future water trading and economic development.
