NT Water Bill Would Scrap Environmental Allocation, Critics Say, Calling It 'Blatant and Shameless'

The Northern Territory government is preparing to delete a line from its water law that environmental groups say is the last real guarantee rivers and springs have: the requirement that water allocation plans set water aside for the environment. Critics have called the move "blatant and shameless." The bill is now before the NT parliament.

Under the current rules, allocation plans must reserve water to sustain rivers, springs, wetlands and water-dependent ecosystems. The Finocchiaro Country Liberal government wants that requirement gone. The change sits inside a larger package that would also alter legislation on marine pollution, heritage and mining.

Other proposed changes go to the mechanics of how much industry can take. The bill would remove a rule that total industry water use stay below the limit set in each water allocation plan. It would also remove a rule requiring water resource management to comply with those plans. Environment groups add that it would weaken the definition of "estimated sustainable yield," the amount of water that may be taken or used from a water resource.

The timing matters to the critics. The government is planning a major expansion of fracking, datacentres and agricultural development. Kirsty Howey, chief executive of the Wilderness Society, said the territory risked trading its aquifers and rivers for "short-term gain and profiteering" by the gas, agriculture and tech industries. She called the move extreme even for this government, and said the few safeguards that existed, which she described as threadbare, had been ripped up. She asked the federal environment minister, Murray Watt, to withhold commonwealth water funding if the bill passes.

The Central Land Council, which represents Indigenous people in the southern half of the NT, said the government was trying to "covertly" remove the last protections Territorians have in how water is used and managed. Its chief executive, Les Turner, said the bill undermines community hopes for better and more transparent water planning laws, runs against national trends and ignores Aboriginal people across the territory. He pointed to a recent case: in August, the High Court quashed the NT government's decision to grant the Singleton Station licence, finding it had been unlawfully granted. Under the law as it now stands, he said, the council could not have supported native title holders to challenge the merits of such a licence in the first place. He warned of future high-water-use developments such as datacentres taking advantage of lax rules and free water, and said the federal government needs stronger powers to intervene in projects affecting water and aquatic ecosystems.

The bill follows earlier rollbacks since the CLP took office. The government scrapped the NT's renewable energy target and abandoned a promise to adopt a 43% emissions reduction target by 2030. It also created a territory coordinator role inside the bureaucracy with power to override 32 territory laws to fast-track developments. Bree Ahrens, executive director of the Environment Centre NT, called the water bill a "smash and grab" that puts water and nature last.

Ahrens also turned to Canberra. Following changes to the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act last year, the federal government can hand its decision-making powers over whether developments proceed to states and territories. She urged the Albanese government to rule out doing so for what she called an increasingly rogue NT government dismantling water safeguards. Watt declined to comment.

The NT environment minister, Joshua Burgoyne, rejected the characterisation. He said the bill does not dismantle environmental safeguards, and that the territory's core framework of environmental laws remains, covering environmental assessment and approvals, mining licences, pollution control, water allocation planning and heritage protection. He accused environmental lobby groups of fearmongering, cited the extension of the Limmen Bight marine park as evidence of the government's record, and said it supports responsible development and effective environmental and water regulation.

What to watch next is the bill's passage through the NT parliament, and whether Watt acts on calls to withhold water funding or keep EPBC decision-making powers in federal hands.