How is social justice
incorporated into Australian
water reform?
Anna Lukasiewicz
Supervisors: Penny Davidson (CSU)
& Kathleen Bowmer (CSU),
Geoff Syme (ECU)
Policies/
Laws
National
Policies
Intention
Social
Justice
Government
Officials
NSW
Stakeholders
Lowbidgee
Interstate
Negotiations
State Decisions
Implementation
Local Outcomes
SA
Chowilla
What is Social Justice?
• Distributive justice:
basis of distribution
Need, Equity, Equality
Efficiency, Self-Interest, Fairness
Sources: Deutsch, M. (1975), Wilke, H. A. M. (1991).
•Procedural justice:
process structure
Who participates
Level of participation
Process Rules
Sources: Paavola, J. (2007), Lawrence, R. L., Daniels, S. E., & Steven, E. (1997).
•Interactive justice:
relationship between
stakeholders
and decision-makers
Informational
Interpersonal
Sources: Cropanzano, R., Prehar, C. A., & Chen, P. Y. (2002),
Masterson, S. S., Byrne, Z. S., & Mao, H. (2005)
Water Reform
•Reform to address past practices
•Focus from extraction to sustainability
•Key change: Environment is a recognised stakeholder
Sources: Hamstead, M,, (2009); Tan, (2008).
Methodology
•Literature review to establish social justice
framework
•Content analysis to establish which social justice
principles appear in key water management
documents
•Semi-structured interviews to explore how social
justice principles are implemented in practice
Sources: Babbie, E. (2004); Searle, J. R. (1995),Weber, R. P. (1990)
Distributive Justice
Equity
17
Efficiency
333
Sustainability*
516
Need
3699
0
1000
2000
3000
Relative Importance across all documents
*Sustainability here is an amalgamation of 4 separate concepts
4000
Which needs are specified?
irrigation 42
public outcomes 44
community 24
indigenous 4
industry 3
cultural 2
recreational 1
social 27
human 10
environmental 648
economic 69
Procedural Justice
At what level?
Who gets to participate?
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.


Government - 19
Public Interest - 18
Community - 16
Indigenous - 5
Industry - 2
Environment - 2

Decision lies with the Minister
Minister has legal duty to ‘consult’ with
‘stakeholder’
‘Consultation’ not specified
What are the process rules?
1.
2.
3.
Consistency – processes, laws, rules
Role of Science – decisions informed
by best available science
Transparency – all available
information provided to all stakeholders
Interactive Justice
•No references to interpersonal component
•Provision of information very important
Implementing justice for the environment
•Legislation
•Environment given highest priority
•Basin Plan to set sustainable diversion limits
•Water buybacks
•Entitlements bought from irrigation for the environment
•Infrastructure programs
•Water saved through better efficiency to flow into environment
•Stakeholders representing environmental interests in
planning processes
•Water sharing plans must include environmental
representatives
What happens in practice?
•Legislation
•Environment not prioritised in practice
•Disagreement over sustainability, Basin Plan delayed
•Water buybacks
•Effectiveness questioned
•Adopted more readily out of equity concerns
•Infrastructure programs
•Less effective for environment than buybacks but more funding
•Stakeholders representing environmental interests in
planning processes
•NSW - belief that planning dominated by irrigation concerns
Sources: Murray-Darling Basin Authority (2009).; Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (2009).
Why did things happen this way?
•Equity for landholders more important in practice
than in policy
•Environment has no clear representative
•‘Environment’ is an artificial construct
•Too much expected of science
Thank you.
Questions?