Water Act 2000

The Act reaches a long list of regulated populations. Anyone who takes or interferes with water that is not stock and domestic water taken under a statutory authorisation needs to find authorisation under one of the section 27 categories or another Act. Irrigators and rural landholders typically rely on water licences, water allocations and seasonal water assignment notices. Bulk water operators (Seqwater, SunWater, Sunwater Limited, Gladstone Area Water Board and similar bodies) hold resource operations and distribution operations licences. Local irrigation distribution operators, including water authorities and irrigation entities, run distribution operations under the Act and the chapter 4 governance regime. Mining and petroleum tenure holders sit inside the chapter 3 underground water regime, including reporting obligations, baseline assessment plans, and make good obligations to bore owners. Coal seam gas, conventional petroleum and large mining proponents are the main population in chapter 3. Service providers nominated under chapter 1A are the front-line agents during a declared water supply emergency. Local governments interact with the regime through the Planning Act 2016 interface (chapter 8 part 2) and through transfers of water authority functions (chapter 4 part 7 division 2).

Several obligations dominate day-to-day compliance. A holder of a water entitlement must not take water exceeding the volume or rate allowed (section 808A). A person must not use water in a water use plan area contrary to the plan (section 809). A person must not contravene a condition of a water entitlement, seasonal water assignment notice, or water permit (section 812), nor a licence condition (section 813). A person must not destroy vegetation, excavate, or place fill in a watercourse, lake or spring without a riverine protection permit (section 814). A person must not remove quarry material without authorisation (section 815). Water bore drilling activities require authorisation (section 816), and water bore driller's licence conditions must be respected (section 818). A holder of an authorisation to take water that is subject to the Part 3A measurement requirements must not take water while contravening those requirements (section 808(3)).

For the resource sector, chapter 3 imposes the make good regime. Section 408 defines an "immediately affected area bore" as a water bore in an immediately affected area of an aquifer. Section 409 then requires a resource tenure holder, for an immediately affected area bore, to undertake a bore assessment under Division 2, enter into a make good agreement with the bore owner under Division 3, comply with that agreement, and negotiate a variation if asked under section 424. For other water bores, the same obligations attach if the holder is required under section 418 to undertake a bore assessment.

Service providers in a declared water supply emergency carry out the directed measures, achieve directed outcomes, and submit a water supply emergency response under section 25C. Customer-facing restrictions, including restrictions on garden watering, vehicle washing, swimming pools and recreational uses, are enabled through section 25D.

The Minister can declare a water supply emergency under section 25B if satisfied an emergency exists or is developing, after considering other measures available under this or another Act. The declaration runs until a regulation dealing with the same matters commences or 20 business days have passed.

The Minister can also publish a notice under section 28 limiting volume or rate of taking, limiting interference, or prohibiting taking or interfering with water, where there is a shortage or harmful contamination. Subsection (7) creates a deemed-executive-liability offence for contravention.

The chief executive grants, amends, transfers, surrenders and cancels water licences (chapter 2 part 3 division 2), water permits (division 3), water allocations (division 4) and resource operations and distribution operations licences (division 5). The Minister and the chief executive each have power to direct action about water quality issues (division 5A) and to give directions to undertake water monitoring activities, emergency directions, and other directions in chapter 3 part 8.

Authorised officers have entry, examination, sampling, copying and seizure powers in chapter 5 part 1, including a stand-alone seizure power in division 4A and information-gathering power in division 5. Compensation for damage caused while exercising power runs through division 6.

The headline offences in chapter 5 part 3 division 1 sit at 1,665 penalty units for unauthorised taking, supplying or interfering (section 808), excess take by an entitlement holder (section 808A), and use contrary to a water use plan (section 809). False or misleading statements and documents to the chief executive or an authorised officer attract 500 penalty units (sections 825 and 826), and obstruction of an authorised officer also sits at 500 penalty units, with impersonation at 200 penalty units (section 827). Section 828 makes corporate executive officers liable for listed offences if they authorised or permitted the conduct or were knowingly concerned, with an enumerated list that includes section 28(7), section 452, section 460(3) and section 808(1) to (3).

Beyond the criminal channel, section 784 lets a person bring a District Court proceeding for an enforcement order to remedy or restrain an offence, for damages for injury or property loss caused by the offence, for an interim enforcement order, or to vary or cancel earlier orders. The applicant does not need to show their own right has been infringed; this is an open-standing enforcement provision.

Internal review is the gateway: section 861 says every appeal or external review must start with an internal review under chapter 6 part 2. Section 862 allows an interested person to apply for internal review of original decisions referred to in section 851. Under section 863, the application must be made within 30 business days of receiving the information notice or compliance notice (subject to extension by the reviewer). Section 877 then routes the review decision to QCAT (water bore driller's licences and decisions arising from compliance notices) or to the Land Court (other section 851(1) decisions and section 851(3) decisions).

For prosecutions, section 931 says summary proceedings under the Justices Act 1886 must start within 1 year of the offence or within 1 year of the offence coming to the complainant's knowledge, but no later than 2 years after the offence. Some offences are "prescribed offences" that the prosecution may elect to take on indictment, treated as a crime where the maximum includes 5 or more years' imprisonment and otherwise as a misdemeanour. A magistrate's summary jurisdiction in such cases tops out at 500 penalty units or 1 year's imprisonment.

Water plans, water use plans and water management protocols have their own preparation, consultation and amendment processes through chapter 2 part 2, with statutory consultation steps and ministerial approval before commencement. Underground water impact reports under chapter 3 part 2 are subject to statutory content requirements (Division 4) and approval by the chief executive (Division 5).

The Water Act expressly interacts with the Mineral Resources Act and the Petroleum and Gas Act for resource-sector water rights (cross-referenced at section 808). The Act sits next to the Water Supply (Safety and Reliability) Act 2008 for drinking water and dam safety, the Planning Act 2016 (and repealed Sustainable Planning Act 2009) for development applications and approvals (chapter 8 part 2), and the Environmental Protection Act 1994 for water-quality regulation. The Murray-Darling Basin Plan under the Commonwealth Water Act 2007 is recognised in chapter 8 part 6. Land tenure and registration interact with the Land Act 1994, Land Title Act 1994 and Acquisition of Land Act 1967 (used for declared projects in chapter 4A). The Property Law Act 2023 is acknowledged as potentially modified by the Act for the water allocations register. The Acts Interpretation Act 1954 and the Statutory Instruments Act 1992 govern the technical machinery of regulations. The Queensland Competition Authority Act 1997 supports pricing review of bulk water and distribution services. The Aboriginal Cultural Heritage Act 2003 and the Torres Strait Islander Cultural Heritage Act 2003 inform cultural heritage matters. The Public Sector Act 2022, Industrial Relations Act 2016, Statutory Bodies Financial Arrangements Act 1982, Financial Accountability Act 2009 and the Judicial Review Act 1991 sit alongside as the main administrative-law and employment surroundings for water authorities and the Office of Groundwater Impact Assessment.

The Act's "take" and "interfere" concepts are separate, and authorisations differ across them: water allocations, water licences and water permits each authorise taking; only water licences, resource operations licences and distribution operations licences authorise interference (section 27). A right to take under one provision is not a right to interfere.

Water allocations are land-detached: they sit on a register and can be transferred, leased and otherwise dealt with separately from land. This is the major structural change made by the 2014 amendments and reflected in the volume of transitional provisions in chapter 9 parts 1 and 8.

The make good regime for water bores is open-ended in time. Section 409 obligations follow the resource tenure holder until the affected bore owner's supply is "made good", and Division 4 provides for disputes about make good obligations rather than an automatic discharge.

Authorised officer entry is qualified by procedure (chapter 5 part 1 division 3); if the procedure is missed, evidence and downstream enforcement orders can be challenged. The Act also imports a corporate-officer extension by section 828, narrower than a general accessory provision because it lists specific deemed executive liability provisions.

Internal review is a hard gateway. Skipping section 861 and going straight to QCAT or the Land Court is fatal under section 877.

Schedules and definitions are the load-bearing parts of the regime. Schedule 4 (the dictionary) defines watercourse, lake, spring, water bore, underground water, resource tenure holder, and many other concepts the operative provisions then rely on; missing the schedule means missing what the section actually regulates.

A grazing landholder draws water for stock and domestic purposes from a creek that runs through their property. This may be authorised under chapter 2 part 3 division 1 statutory authorisations, subject to whether the watercourse and the take fall within the statutory scope. If the landholder begins to irrigate a commercial crop, the take ceases to be domestic, and a water licence or water allocation must be sought. Excavating a new dam in the bed of a watercourse to do so triggers section 814 (riverine protection permit) and likely a quarry materials issue under chapter 2 part 5.

A coal seam gas company holding petroleum tenure operates wells that materially lower an aquifer pressure. The operator falls within chapter 3, must lodge an underground water impact report (Part 2), implement a baseline assessment plan (Part 3), and comply with the make good obligations under Part 5 for affected bore owners, including bore assessments and entry into make good agreements. The Office of Groundwater Impact Assessment runs cumulative reporting in any cumulative management area covering the area.

A South-East Queensland service provider receives a water supply emergency declaration under section 25B during a prolonged drought. It must implement the directed measures (which can include household-use restrictions under section 25D), submit a water supply emergency response under section 25C, and continue to operate within the bulk water arrangements set in chapter 2A part 3.

A category 1 water authority's directors are subject to the duties in chapter 4 part 4 division 2 and the corporate plan and performance plan regime in part 5; failures in those duties trigger consequences alongside, not in place of, the underlying offence regime.