A bill introduced by Northern Territory Lands, Planning and Environment Minister Joshua Burgoyne would remove a required environmental allocation from water plans, loosening statutory rules that govern how the territory manages water.
The Environment and Water Legislation Amendment Bill 2026, introduced Oct. 21, would replace section 22B of the Water Act 1992. The current law requires plans to allocate water to the environment, keep total use below the sum of allocations and guide water resource management. The bill would remove those requirements.
The proposed rules would retain an estimated sustainable yield for each plan and require plans to explain how water is allocated among beneficial uses. The bill defines the yield as water that, with the environment taken into account, may be allocated to beneficial uses and taken by people. It would rename the listed use “environment” as “aquatic ecosystems” and retain an Aboriginal water reserve when a plan covers eligible land.
The current Act limits plans to 10 years and requires reviews at intervals of no more than five years. Under the bill, plans would remain in force until revoked by the minister, while the review interval would stay in place.
The Northern Territory’s allocation framework gives priority to non-consumptive uses, including environmental and cultural needs, before consumptive uses. It uses 80:20 as a flexible shorthand: 80% of available water for non-consumptive uses and 20% for consumptive uses, with allocations able to adjust as more information becomes available.
The Guardian reported that Kirsty Howey, chief executive of the Wilderness Society, called the proposed changes “blatant and shameless.” It also reported that Central Land Council chief executive Les Turner warned the changes could weaken water protections and affect Aboriginal people. The Guardian said Burgoyne defended the bill, saying the government remained focused on facts and rejecting what he called environmental groups’ “fearmongering tactics.”
A separate High Court of Australia ruling on Aug. 5 quashed a 30-year water extraction license for Singleton Station and returned the matter to the minister. That case concerned the legal basis for a license longer than 10 years and procedural fairness; it did not decide the allocation-plan changes in the bill.
The bill remains before the Legislative Assembly. Its listing records no passage date or scheduled next reading.
