Australia: The Problem of sustainability in water

Abstract

This chapter identifies five paradigms in Australian water quantity and quality regulation from the period before white settlement to the present day. After white settlement, these paradigms progressed from the common law, to State statutes, and finally to a more centralized approach. The chapters describe the social drivers in each transition, which in the last three phases were (and are) acute, involving both resistance to legal change and growing public emphasis on environmentally sustainable development. This chapter uses cases to illustrate the issues and also identifies major legal events leading to the latest paradigm and the difficulties of achieving environmentally sustainable development. © 2009 Springer Netherlands.