Tom Rooney is CEO of Waterfind Australia. He is a Member of the Water Industry Alliance, grew up in regional Australia, and has owned and operated an irrigated citrus property.
Australian water sovereignty: navigating the next chapter
Tom Rooney
Foreign ownership climbs while irrigation costs soar, but Australian farmers have tools to thrive. Technology and adaptive management offer a path through mounting pressure.
Australia's water assets stand at a critical juncture. As water security pressures from government intervention and climate variability intensifies, and as global interest in our water resources grows, the conversation around water sovereignty demands both nuance and attention. The question is not whether we protect our water, but how we do so whilst maintaining productive agricultural systems and environmental health.
Foreign ownership of Australian water entitlements has steadily climbed over the past decade. The ATO's Register of Foreign Ownership of Australian Assets (October 2025) shows the proportion with foreign ownership increased from 11.8 per cent at 30 June 2023 to 12.3 per cent at 30 June 2024, representing 4,932 gigalitres (GL) of our total water resources. This upward trajectory, though modest in percentage terms, represents a significant volume of water moving into foreign hands, with an increase of 157 gigalitres just over a year.
The transparency mechanisms established through the Register serve an important function. The Register shows Canadian interests hold the largest foreign share of Australian water entitlements at 2.6 cent (1,062 GL), followed by the US at 1.8 per cent (716 GL), UK at 1.0 per cent (382 GL), and China at 0.9 per cent (351 GL). Foreign persons from 46 countries hold interests, primarily for agriculture (66.3 per cent) and mining (19.0 per cent).
However, 755 GL held indirectly by Australian investors through entities classified as foreign persons represents 15.3 per cent of the foreign-held total. This complexity in ownership structures underscores the need for continued vigilance and transparent reporting.
Transparency alone does not constitute a strategy. We must ask ourselves: what level of foreign participation aligns with our national interest, and how do we ensure water remains fundamentally Australian in its management and purpose?
Such questions will become more relevant as water becomes scarcer. For example, the Commonwealth's water buyback programme represents a significant intervention in the availability of water in the productive pool. Since 2007, successive Australian Governments have committed over $13 billion for Murray-Darling Basin (Basin) reforms (REF: DCCEEW 2024). The programme's resumption has generated predictable controversy, yet buybacks serve a purpose – provided the water is actively managed. Active management means strategic releases, adaptive planning, and measurable ecological results. Anything less is a failure to steward public investment.
The Murray-Darling Basin Plan targets 2,750 GL/year water recovery plus 450 GL for enhanced environmental outcomes, managed by the Commonwealth Environmental Water Holder. This rebalancing from consumptive to environmental uses faces further pressure from climate uncertainty, with Bureau of Meteorology projections indicating increasing variability and more frequent droughts.
Individual irrigation companies throughout the Murray-Darling Basin face mounting challenges. Fixed infrastructure costs become increasingly burdensome as irrigator numbers decline, whilst ageing systems require substantial capital investment to modernise. The Australian Government's Resilient Rivers Water Infrastructure Programme provides $494 million for water-saving infrastructure projects. However, funding alone is insufficient.
Irrigation companies must evolve or face becoming inefficient relics. This means hard decisions about infrastructure rationalisation, adopting automated delivery systems, and potentially consolidation where economies of scale can be achieved. The alternative is gradual deterioration of service quality and escalating costs borne by remaining customers – a declining spiral no stakeholder desires.
It’s not all doom and gloom. These pressures create opportunities to offset declining supply through continued technological advancement. Australian irrigators increasingly deploy precision agriculture, smart irrigation systems, and on-farm automation that transform water use efficiency across the Basin. The Murray-Darling Basin Authority's monitoring demonstrates that whilst climate variability remains a challenge, adaptive water management practices and improved infrastructure are building resilience into the system.
These structural pressures – from the complexity of foreign ownership to the rising cost of ageing irrigation infrastructure and increasing climate variability – make it clear that Australia cannot rely on past approaches to govern its water resources. Australia's water sovereignty ultimately depends not on restrictive policies or protectionist rhetoric, but on intelligent stewardship that recognises the interconnected nature of our water systems, markets and communities. We must maintain robust transparency around foreign ownership whilst remaining open to investment that strengthens agricultural productivity and regional resilience. Likewise, government water recovery programmes must be coupled with active, adaptive management regimes that deliver measurable environmental outcomes, ensuring that public investment translates into tangible benefit.
The next chapter of Australian water management will be defined by how effectively we balance competing demands while safeguarding the resource itself. We have the tools, the knowledge, and the institutional frameworks to do this. What remains is the will to apply them without succumbing to the extremes of either unfettered marketisation or heavy-handed intervention. Our water sovereignty future depends on getting this balance right.
NEWS
Trace minerals are required for optimal growth, reproduction, and immunity. Optimising trace mineral status relying solely on oral supplements across a herd may fail because of variation in individual intake and reduced absorption due to antagonism of other ration components and minerals. The use of injectable trace mineral supplements has been associated with positive reproductive outcomes including improved conception rate, increased odds of pregnancy and greater final in calf rate. A study conducted on 2,168 dairy cows, administered injectable trace minerals, four weeks prior to calving and again four weeks prior to the start of mating showed treated animals had a 3.3 per cent greater final in-calf rate, and a reduced time from start of mating to conception, compared to control animals 1 . The Importance of B12 Dr Carl Eden, Technical Services Veterinarian with Boehringer Ingelheim says “Vitamin B12 is sometimes referred to as a ‘super vitamin’ because it is only required in very small amounts but vital to many essential metabolic pathways. However, demand for B12 can vary considerably during the year and we see serum levels of B12 fall at critical times, such as the first few months after calving.” Vitamin B12 contains cobalt, so deficiency in cobalt can lead to deficiency in vitamin B12 because ruminants get most of their B12 as a byproduct of ruminal fermentation where the bacteria in their rumen assemble B12 from cobalt for use by the cow. Sub-optimal trace mineral and vitamin B12 status at calving, mating, and drying off has been shown to negatively impact growth, reproduction, and immunity. Using a trace mineral injectable containing vitamin B12 can improve trace mineral and vitamin B12 status at these critical times. Marks-Min with Vitamin B12 – The Evidence In the largest trace element study to date, Marks-Min Injectable Trace Mineral with Vitamin B12 demonstrated remarkable results when compared to a reference trace mineral injection. “Given the differences between Marks-Min and other products on the market, we wanted to generate a compelling data set to demonstrate how effective it was compared to the pioneer product. We entrusted this work to a third-party research company” says Dr Eden. “We chose farms that were at the top of their game from a reproductive perspective. We made sure that the farms had no evidence of trace element or vitamin B12 deficiencies or excess.” Across all outcomes of interest, Marks-Min demonstrated clear non-inferiority when compared to the reference product. Outcomes measured included submission, pregnancy and conception rates, and six week in-calf rate. Marks-Min demonstrated it is highly suited as an alternative treatment to the reference product. Reference: 1. Hawkins, D., and B. V. S. Franklin. New Zealand Dairy Veterinarians Newsletter 24 (2007): 12-16 Company website: livestockfirst.com.au Company email address: CustomerCare.Australia@boehringer-ingelheim.com Company video: https://vimeo.com/1138807630?fl=pl&fe=cm
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