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WATER & IRRIGATION
Australian water sovereignty: navigating the next chapter
By Tom Rooney
Foreign ownership climbs while irrigation costs soar, but Australian farmers have tools to thrive. Technology and adaptive management offer a path through mounting pressure.
terests, primarily for agriculture (66.3 per cent) and mining (19.0 per cent). However, 755 GL held indirectly by Australian in- vestors through entities classified as foreign persons represents 15.3 per cent of the foreign-held total. This complexity in ownership structures underscores the need for continued vigilance and transparent reporting. Transparency alone does not constitute a strategy. We must ask ourselves: what level of foreign participa- tion aligns with our national interest, and how do we ensure water remains fundamentally Australian in its management and purpose? Such questions will become more relevant as water becomes scarcer. For example, the Common- wealth's water buyback programme represents a significant intervention in the availability of water in the productive pool. Since 2007, successive Austral- ian Governments have committed over $13 billion for Murray-Darling Basin (Basin) reforms (REF: DCCEEW 2024). The programme's resumption has generated predictable controversy, yet buybacks serve a pur- pose – provided the water is actively managed. Active management means strategic releases, adaptive plan- ning, and measurable ecological results. Anything less is a failure to steward public investment. The Murray-Darling Basin Plan targets 2,750 GL/year
Australia's water assets stand at a critical juncture. As water security pressures from government interven- tion and climate variability intensifies, and as global in- terest in our water resources grows, the conversation around water sovereignty demands both nuance and attention. The question is not whether we protect our water, but how we do so whilst maintaining product- ive agricultural systems and environmental health. Foreign ownership of Australian water entitlements has steadily climbed over the past decade. The ATO's Register of Foreign Ownership of Australian Assets (Oc- tober 2025) shows the proportion with foreign owner- ship increased from 11.8 per cent at 30 June 2023 to 12.3 per cent at 30 June 2024, representing 4,932 gigalitres (GL) of our total water resources. This up- ward trajectory, though modest in percentage terms, represents a significant volume of water moving into foreign hands, with an increase of 157 gigalitres just over a year. The transparency mechanisms established through the Register serve an important function. The Register shows Canadian interests hold the largest foreign share of Australian water entitlements at 2.6 cent (1,062 GL), followed by the US at 1.8 per cent (716 GL), UK at 1.0 per cent (382 GL), and China at 0.9 per cent (351 GL). Foreign persons from 46 countries hold in-
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