(5) Reform Oversight and Champions

Reform oversight and a "champion" of change are critically important to deliver successful water reform, as shown in relation to water market reforms over the past 25 years [64]. A water reform "champion" did exist, the National Water Commission (NWC) that was created as part of the 2004 NWI, but it was abolished by an Act of Parliament in 2015. The Parliamentary Secretary responsible for announcing the NWC demise justified this decision on the basis that " ... there is no longer a need for a stand-alone entity to undertake monitoring of Australia's progress on water reform" [65].

Despite the Parliamentary Secretary's claim that a body like the NWC was no longer needed, multiple failures in terms of implementation of the Basin Plan and delivery of key objects of the *Water Act 2007* have been identified. In particular, the Senior Counsel assisting the MDBRC, Richard Beasley, stated "The implementation of the Basin Plan has been marred by maladministration ... The responsibility for that maladministration and mismanagement falls on both past and current executives of the MDBA and its board" [66]. This conclusion that the MDBA has not provided the reform oversight required, and that an alternative and truly independent water agency is required to audit progress

on the Basin Plan and its delivery of the *Water Act 2007*, is supported by Grafton [46], Grafton and Wheeler [36] and the Australian Government's own Productivity Commission [47], among others.
