Full Journal of Contemporary Water Research and Education, Issue ...

Implementation of Australian Water Laws123Table 1. Relative ranking of width of ESD definitionin four Australian states and through MBDC templatelegislation in each state 1 .Rank of ESD definitions widthMDBC Template*1 (Equal)SA (downstream) 10% in MDB area 1 (Equal)Qid (up stream) 25% in MDB area 2MSW (up stream) 90% in MDBC area 3VIC (midstream) 60% in MDb area 4*legislation inserted into state law of Queensland,New South Wales, Vic, SAPrecautionary Principle).2. The global dimension of environmentalimpacts of actions should be recognizedand considered.3. The need to develop a strong, growingand diversified economy that can enhancethe capacity for environmental protectionshould be recognized.4. The need to enhance and maintain internationalcompetitiveness in an environmentally soundmanner should be recognized.5. Decision-making processes should effectivelyintegrate both long and short-termeconomic, environmental, social, and equityconsiderations.6. Cost-effective and flexible policy instrumentsshould be adopted.7. Broad community involvement should befacilitated.This statement has been accepted by CoAG andreflects that economic efficiency is not the maingoal of water institutions but rather that there isa need to achieve ESD and balance between thesocial, economic, and environmental needs. Theseprinciples have accordingly guided the collectivethinking of governments in the formulation ofcontemporary water policy. Integration is required,especially under Paradigm 4, but is mentioned in anad hoc way by all the states. The CEOs were askedquestions about their perceptions of the integrationof the policy processes in water reform and someof these results are reported here.CEOs of Water Supply Businesses as KeyActors in Achievement of EnvironmentallySustainable DevelopmentThe obligations to achieve EnvironmentallySustainable Development are imposed on allCEOs of the water supply businesses by a numberof State laws and also through the implementationof the bilateral Natural Heritage Trust andNational Action Plan agreements with the FederalGovernment. There are 333 major water supplybusinesses in Australia (Table 2) and theseare distributed over 14 different types of legalorganizational forms. Previous internationalresearch has described how organization form has agreat influence on the achievement of policy (North1990). These range from government-ownedcorporations, private companies, local governmentauthorities, to water boards. Many have their ownact or rely on powers in another act.Once we identified the types, we arranged tointerview a sample of the CEOs according to thetypology type. The CEOs were distributed as such;86 out of 115 from Queensland, 38 from 78 in NewSouth Wales, 24 from 29 in Tasmania, 13 from 24in Victoria, 20 from 22 in Western Australia andthe only one from each of the Australian CapitalTerritory and Northern Territory. The distributionby typology type reflected the proportions, withlocal government predominating.Responses of CEOs to EnvironmentallySustainable Development and theParadigm 3 and 4 Water ReformsFollowing the approach described above,this work sought to perform an Evaluation bypolicy implementers and Evaluation of law byimplementers. The CEOs were interviewed overthe phone after a time had been made for themto have 30 minutes free to do the interview. Theinterviews took place between September 2006and January 2006 and were conducted by threetrained professional interviewers at EhrenbergBass Institute. The respondents were all sent aproject information sheet and advised that theirresponses were confidential. There were over 100questions and the average time for each interviewwas 27 minutes with no one stopping the interview.Respondents reported that they liked the survey asthey had a chance to explore issues and report onJOURNAL OF CONTEMPORARY WATER RESEARCH & EDUCATIONUCOWR