(2) Transparency

The Australian government's own Productivity Commission, in a five-year review of the 2012 Basin Plan, raised serious concerns about the lack of transparency and accountability in terms of institutional and water governance arrangements [47]. It observed: 'This lack of transparency has resulted in stakeholders seeking information through other means, including Freedom of Information requests and orders for the production of documents in the Australian Parliament. The absence of transparency has engendered an environment of low confidence and trust in Governments' [47]. Further, despite multiples of billions of expenditures on water infrastructure by the Australian government, there has been no publicly available cost-benefit analysis in relation to these expenditures [46].

Notwithstanding these deficiencies, water reform funds allocated for water data collection have resulted in a substantial improvement in the quality and range of data available. These data include information on water flows within the basin, such as the Water Data Online and the National Water Account, both of which are available through the Bureau of Meteorology [48].
