In Chapter 4 I consider the limited recognition of traditional, cultural water rights in Australian law. In the Australian model, property rights in water and water markets accompany government oversight and planning. Australian water law has undergone drastic reforms since the early 1990s, yet little has been done to provide indigenous peoples with the right to use water on their lands for commercial and productive purposes. Native title rights to water have been interpreted narrowly by the courts according to traditional and cultural uses, and are usually accounted for as in-stream cultural and conservation values in water catchments, distinguishing them from the consumptive rights held by other users. Yet indigenous Australians continue to make up the most disadvantaged sector of Australian society and Australian governments have committed to reducing that disadvantage, including by supporting the productive use of indigenous lands. The Australian experience demonstrates the difficulties inherent in recognising historical indigenous rights to land and resources, as indigenous water practices change over time and conflict with other uses. The study highlights the need for an allocative model, enabling both the reservation of water for indigenous allocation and the redistribution of water rights in fully allocated catchments.

In Chapter 5 I consider water rights for Maori in Aotearoa New Zealand. Pursuant to a settlement between Whanganui Iwi and the Crown, made in 2017, the Whanganui River was recognised as ‘Te Awa Tupua’ (‘an indivisible and living whole, incorporating all its physical and meta-physical elements’), declaring the River to be a ‘legal person’. The arrangement accords certain guardianship and governance rights, but not property rights, to the Maori people that traditionally owned the River. However, Maori continue to agitate at a national level, both politically and before courts and tribunals, for the right to ‘own’ their water resources, amid cautious government plans for water law reform. The New Zealand study raises interesting questions about the nature of water in law; as a private right to be held and allocated, or a public interest incapable of ownership. Maori are seeking both recognition of their distinctive water relationships and influence and control over water governance and a substantive share of the consumptive pool of water for any purpose including economic development. The study of Maori rights to water in this chapter demonstrates the variability of indigenous water demands, and a need for multifaceted responses to indigenous water exclusion.