Farmers and green groups have urged Prime Minister Kevin Rudd and the premiers to commit to a new attempt at water reform after a damning assessment warned that interstate bickering and delays were threatening Australia's rivers.
According to The Australian Financial Review, the Council of Australian Governments (COAG) summit is expected to consider a National Water Commission report saying the failure to address the overallocation of water might have already caused "irreversible damage" to the environment.
After releasing the biennial reform assessment in October, commission chairman Ken Matthews suggested the federal government could withhold billions of dollars for water infrastructure projects until the states meet agreed reform goals.
But it is understood that instead of imposing penalties for failure to reform, the federal government has considered offering the states incentives to spur them to action.
The COAG meeting in Brisbane is likely to discuss the need for states to agree on water-sharing plans in each region, after the water commission revealed that more than 40 per cent of promised plans had not been completed.
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