Abstract
Effective water management in the Murray Darling Basin of Australia has proved challenging. Water theft, problematic water buy-backs by the Commonwealth and fish kills, particularly those in the Menindee Lakes, have exposed weaknesses in the implementation and application of key legislation and governance instruments such as the Water Act 2008 (Cth) and the Murray Darling Basin Plan. Meanwhile, Basin health has continued to suffer. A more pro-active, multi-pronged approach to governance, particularly in relation to monitoring, compliance and enforcement would be advantageous as would greater transparency in the application of science-led or evidence-led research. Improvements in these areas are likely to better serve ecological integrity objectives.
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Gray, J. (2020). ‘Thieves, Shady Deals and Murder’: Water Theft, Buy-Backs and Fish Kills in the Murray Darling Basin of Australia. In: Westra, L., Bosselmann, K., Fermeglia, M. (eds) Ecological Integrity in Science and Law. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-46259-8_4
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