Virginia Marshall elected Chair of national water committee

Dr Virginia Marshall, RegNet Research Fellow and leading legal scholar in Aboriginal water rights, has been elected as Chair of the National Committee on Aboriginal Water Interests (CAWI). CAWI was established by the federal Minister for Water and Environment to advise the National Water Committee (NWC), the Australian Government, and the Water and Murray-Darling Basin Ministerial Council on First Nations water reform matters, including renewal of the 20-year-old National Water Initiative (NWI).

The legacy NWI failed to give consideration to the impact of climate change on water resources and gave little to no consideration of Aboriginal water rights and interests. Minister Plibersek specified that these considerations had to be part of the new NWA and CAWI has played a significant and respected role in bringing Aboriginal interests in water to the fore. Among CAWI’s important contributions has been its Insights Paper published in December 2023: 

Dr Marshall’s election at CAWI Adelaide meeting on 5 February 2025 follows the various executive roles she has served as CAWI Co-Chair, Co-Deputy Chair and Acting-Chair over the last four years. She has represented CAWI on the National Water Initiative Mark 2 Legislative Drafting Group, the NWI Mark 2 Jurisdictional Taskforce and, by invitation from Minister Plibersek, at the Ministerial Council of Water Ministers.