News: School of Economics and Public Policy
Murray-Darling Basin water theft laws suck more than river irrigation pumps
Water is one of Australia’s most valuable commodities. Rights to take water from our nation’s largest river system, the Murray-Darling Basin, are worth almost A$100 billion. These rights can be bought and sold or leased, with trade exceeding A$2 billion a year. But water is also being stolen (no-one knows how much) and the thieves usually get away with it.
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Australia’s least wanted – 8 alien species and diseases we must keep out of our island home
This week’s landmark report on the impact of invasive alien species revealed costs to the global economy exceeded US$423 billion (A$654 billion) a year in 2019. Costs have at least quadrupled every decade since 1970 and that trend is set to continue.
Water buybacks are back on the table in the Murray-Darling Basin. Here’s a refresher on how they work.
The Federal government has announced a new round of strategic water buybacks in the Murray-Darling Basin. The government intends to purchase water entitlements from voluntary sellers in parts of New South Wales and Queensland.
Future Fellowship announcement
Congratulations to Environment Institute's Associate Professor Alec Zuo, who was awarded an Australian Research Council (ARC) Future Fellowship for his project 'Quantifying the economic and social impacts of drought in rural Australia' in the recently announced round.
Understanding global trade networks could help us spread the load of environmental contamination
Rice travels a long way to get to your dinner plate. It may have been harvested from a paddy field in Vietnam, processed and packaged in a factory in Bangladesh, and transported via freight ship to eventually land in your local supermarket.
ARC Success for Environment Institute
Congratulations to our Environment Institute members who have been awarded over $2.8M across five ARC Discovery Projects and two ARC LIEF Project.
Research suggests reliance on modern irrigation technologies is a 'zombie' theory
A team of scientists, including experts from the University of Adelaide, suggest that reliance on modern irrigation technologies as a water-use efficiency strategy is a ‘zombie idea’ – one that persists no matter how much evidence is thrown against it.
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