What's trust got to do with it?

Across Australia, Watertrust is recognised for its work in facilitating better policy processes for fairer water outcomes. But in fact, we have a parallel mission: to protect another resource that may be as precious and fragile as Australia’s freshwater.

That resource is trust.

A report released today by Watertrust Australia speaks of lessons and opportunities in deciding future water allocations in the Northern Territory’s contentious Western Davenport region, north of Alice Springs. The report offers strategies in negotiating water use that allow stakeholders to be confident the process has been transparent, inclusive and focused on creating a fair and equitable result. In other words, creating a policy process framework that Territorians can trust.

Because, globally, trust in officials and process is in short supply. You only need to look at the political sphere to see the results of a gradual but steady erosion in trust that has occurred when it comes to elected politicians, and government executives. The Federal Government has even convened a "Strengthening Democracy" taskforce to combat the problem.

Polarisation at the ballot box, along with conspiracy theories on social media and increasingly in mainstream media, are symptoms of this worldwide crumbling trust in institutions, and official research backs up what we can see unfolding.

In Australia, a 2024 Trust Survey focusing on innovation by communications firm Edelman found that many Australians believe politics has too much influence on science with 59 per cent concerned our leaders are purposelessly misleading us when it comes to potential innovation and technologies.

That startling figure is joined by Amplify surveys that suggest 84 per cent of Australians believe politicians focus too heavily on winning votes, with pollies focused on short term thinking (74 per cent). In the same survey, 59 per cent of Australians surveyed said they don’t trust major political parties. The majority also didn’t trust the media or big business.

This issue of crumbling trust goes well beyond our shores.

A 2024 survey by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) found that across 30 countries surveyed, 44 per cent of people had low or no trust in the national government, outweighing the 39 per cent of responders who reported high or moderately high trust.

Dig further into that report’s findings and it becomes clear that people tend to trust day-to-day interactions with public institutions, but do not trust the government’s ability to make important decisions on complex policy issues, especially ones with potential trade-offs across different groups in society. Edelman’s Trust Survey agrees, saying 64 per cent of Australians believe our governments lack adequate understanding to regulate emerging innovations, and more than two-thirds of Australians want technical experts and scientists to lead implementation of innovation, not governments.

Time and again, surveys suggest people feel a lack of inclusion or representation in planning for the future, exacerbated by a deeper, evolving western world trend to live in social isolation. In a January 8 article in The Atlantic, titled: "The Anti-Social Century", Derek Thompson writes, “In the past 25 years, face-to-face socialization has collapsed for every age, ethnicity, and demographic. The pandemic did not create these trends, but it did exacerbate many of them.” The result of this increasing social isolation, he added, “isn’t just altering the way we spend our time. It’s reshaping the economy, changing our personalities, and darkening our politics.”

In such an anti-social environment, trying to govern or inspire stakeholders with future vision becomes more difficult, but there are ways. Kristin Lord, from the International Research and Exchanges Board, wrote in the Stanford Social Innovation Review that to escape distrust and create greater social trust, governments needed to ensure institutions are effective and deliver real benefits to people; develop future leaders who work for the greater good, not for themselves; strengthen accountability and transparency; engage citizens in solving community and societal challenges; strengthen social inclusion; and establish real commitment when it comes to solving major challenges.

Seeking to build such improvements within Australian water policy decisions is exactly where Watertrust lives, and not by accident. We exist to convene stakeholders and governments at every level to foster better communication, transparency, clear use of total evidence, and co-operation so that water decisions can be widely regarded as fair, just and equitable, even if they do not deliver everything individual stakeholders have pushed for. We have spent the last year in the Northern Territory, doing this work, after being invited into the Territory’s contentious water space to help navigate ongoing and deepening mistrust and strained relations between the NT Government and stakeholders in allocation considerations for the crucial Western Davenport region.

Through 2023 and the first half of 2024, the Territory Government had struggled to win support for the Western Davenport Water Allocation Plan. In July, on the eve of an election, major changes were made to the draft plan and the revised plan was gazetted. Then, in August, a new Territory Government was elected, and just before Christmas, it annulled the plan and went back to the conditions in the original draft.

Watertrust sees this volatility as an opportunity to continue building the inclusive and transparent processes that can make Territorians more satisfied with the reasoning behind future water allocations. Inclusive, deliberative decision-making is gaining momentum in Australia’s water space, through Watertrust’s work in bringing Adelaide stakeholders together to agree on an Integrated Water Strategy, to our ongoing exploration of inclusive Upper Murrumbidgee policy, to name just two examples.

Our Darwin-based Principal, Kate Peake, enthuses that the Northern Territory’s water space is unique in Australia in that there is a chance for pro-active future planning, as against many states where existing infrastructure means water policy is often focused on managing the impacts of long-established development.

Despite the Territory’s unique physical and cultural challenges, Watertrust believes that with a committed approach to inclusive process, the Territory’s water deliberations can remain on the cutting edge of consultative water policy development, leading Australia in what can be done. The report we released today explains how we can help make that happen.

As the wider world shows, such moves to bolster democratic process and find ways to reintroduce trust are more important than ever.

Return to New NT report contributes to a groundswell for change.

Read the full report here.