Water Security: Everyday engagement with public policy

In the contemporary Australian political climate attention is focussed on issues of security. From border protection to issues of resource sustainability, the discourse of security dominates our political consciousness. This paper examines the development of this political discourse with a focus on the manner in which issues of water scarcity in urban regions are currently articulated within this framework. It examines the approaches to public policy in this area and, through the use of survey and focus group research carried out in the ACT in 2007, it analyses the ways in which members of the body politic engage with this discourse and the direct effects it has on their behaviours and actions. 2 The Government and the media regularly remind us that we are facing a water crisis and that action must be taken to secure the future water supply to many parts of Australia. Much of this coverage focuses on rural, agricultural regions, in particular the Murray-Darling Basin which is experiencing record low inflows. The trading o