Water trading by Aboriginal organisations in NSW, Australia

Abstract

Markets are a contentious way to manage demand for water because they can produce or exacerbate inequities for small and more vulnerable water holders, including Indigenous peoples. In Australia, which has the world's largest water market in the Murray-Darling Basin (MDB), settler-colonial governments have transformed water law and policy to enable water trading with negligible consideration of the effects on Aboriginal peoples. We present the first Australian study of Aboriginal peoples' interactions with rural water markets, the possibilities, and pitfalls of market participation, enabling and limiting factors, and the power relations underpinning the establishment and ongoing operation of this water allocation mechanism. From interviews with representatives of 13 Aboriginal organisations who held water entitlements, including ten that participated in MDB water markets during 2004–2018, we found that water trade activity and the number of individual Aboriginal water sales generally increased. Organisations traded as sellers on the (temporary) allocation market, generating revenue that was valued because it was relatively easy to obtain, with fewer external restrictions than income from government grants. Aboriginal organisations aspired to use their water on their own estates and for their own purposes, however, due to what we term a ‘water trading trap’, this was rarely feasible. In addition to increasing the water holdings of Aboriginal organisations, water rights restitution programs and policies need to address the lack of capital (including productive land and infrastructure) and capacity that prevents Aboriginal organisations from using their water to pursue wider aspirations, including building an asset base or using water for environmental and cultural purposes.