First Nations water justice

We support genuine Traditional Owner-led self-determination and water justice for Traditional Owners across the Murray–Darling Basin.

This requires recognising and giving practical and enforceable effect to Traditional Owners’ rights and interests in water through the Water Act, the Basin Plan and associated subsidiary instruments including Water Resource Plans. It includes the return and allocation of water rights to Traditional Owners and agreement making in relation to river management.

The Murray–Darling Basin includes the unceded territories of over 40 First Nations. Approximately five per cent (120,000) of the total Basin population is Indigenous, maintaining enduring cultural, spiritual, economic and governance responsibilities to Country. Colonisation and its ongoing legacies have resulted in the dispossession of land and water, with First Nations organisations holding only a minimal share of Basin water entitlements. At the same time, successive policy frameworks have enabled over-extraction and entrenched the marketisation and financialisation of water. These settings have compounded inequity by degrading rivers and floodplains, limiting Traditional Owner influence in water governance, and systematically excluding First Nations from the economic benefits derived from Basin water resources.

This structural imbalance directly informs the case for reform. Justice and equity in Basin management require more than consultation, they require redistribution of access, authority, and benefit. Embedding Traditional Owner water rights within Basin settings is not an add-on to environmental reform; it is integral to achieving ecologically sustainable outcomes and lawful recognition of rights.