Overview
The Statutory Review of the role of the Inspector-General of Water Compliance is now complete.
The Water Act 2007 requires this review. The review was completed on 30 June 2026.
In December 2025 the Minister for the Environment and Water appointed Dr Tahnya Donaghy and Ms Ingrid Haythorpe as the joint independent reviewers.
The review looked at the Inspector-General’s purpose, function and powers as described in the Water Act.
The review considered public feedback. It also consulted Murray-Darling Basin states, the Inspector-General of Water Compliance and relevant Commonwealth agencies. The department will publish the review report on its website after it is tabled in Parliament.
Please see the link below for the Terms of Reference for the review.
Context:
The review considered the recommendations of the 2024 independent review by Peter Harris AO (Harris Review). The Harris Review was part of the Government’s 2022 election commitment to increase compliance effort across the Murray-Darling Basin. The Australian Government published its response to the Harris Review in June 2024 (links are provided below).
