| Popis: |
Water pollution from diffuse (non-point) sources is the ‘unfinished business of water quality regulation in Australia’ (Nelson, 2011, p. 341). Why? Water quality is widely acknowledged as a critical water resource issue in Australia, but it has been a second-order priority on the national water reform agenda. Instead, priority has been given to establishing regulatory frameworks for the management of water quantity and its allocation under the National Water Initiative (NWI) (Council of Australian Governments (COAG), 2004), while ‘the polycentric complexity of water quality management has stymied both State and Commonwealth government action’ (Gardner, 2012, p. 269). To date, the regulation of water quality in Australia has been ‘strewn over the legal and bureaucratic landscape or beyond its horizon’ (Gardner, 2012, p. 269). Although the regulation of point source or ‘end-of-pipe’ pollution by state governments has largely been successful, water pollution from diffuse sources remains largely unregulated. |
