Urban water policy: in need of economics

Abstract

The thesis of this article is that Australian urban water supply and pricing policies are not well grounded in rational economic thinking. It questions the policy consensus that water is necessarily so scarce in Australia as to require the sorts of penal charges, water restrictions and use regulations which are being imposed or being considered for imposition upon urban users. It also questions the policy consensus on vetoing new dams for urban water supply, a consensus from which Queensland is partly defecting. Show more