This inquiry concerns the National Water Initiative (NWI) — a 2004 intergovernmental agreement between the Australian government and all State and Territory governments. It is the Productivity Commission’s second national water reform inquiry, with the first undertaken in 2017.

This report is the second yearly review of the current Five-Year Implementation Plan. It details the status of each of the 113 actions as they stood in 2019. Collectively the actions are aimed at boosting connectivity and sustainability within Melbourne and dealing with the prospect of large future population growth.

This paper argues that with rapid population growth, Australia’s infrastructure backlog can only increase. There can never be enough decentralisation, planning or investment to enable infrastructure to keep pace with increasing demands.

This report outlines how Australia’s current economic growth is almost entirely attributable to increases in hours worked. The Coalition Government’s vaunted capacity as an economic manager has been reduced to dependence on extra work inputs, most of which are due to its high net overseas migration (NOM) policy.

The Coalition has promised to ease the pressure on Australia's major cities by imposing a "freeze" on immigration levels. So why does the Government's own budget predict an increase in new migrants over the next four years?