The Political Economy of Drought: Legacy and Lessons from Australia's Millennium Drought

Abstract

The policy response to drought can have both positive and negative effects by either promoting adaptation to greater variability or setting in train processes that ultimately make water users less adaptable. Also, on the one hand the “crisis” of drought can encourage policy reforms that may have stalled and on the other hand the desire to be seen to be “doing something” can lead to political expediency that might be counter to the goal of adaptation. In this paper we focus on recent Australian water policy in an effort to gain insights to the direction of contemporary interventions and identify what can be done better. In order to answer questions about the current preparedness for drought we consider strengths and weaknesses that emerged in response to the so-called millennium drought that began in Australia in the mid-1990s and concluded in 2009–2010. We also briefly scrutinise subsequent policy changes, legislation and management practices against wider reform objectives. The aim is to encourage other jurisdictions to recognise the pitfalls and avoid costly mistakes.