Presenters

Mike Young, Professor Emeritus, School of Economics and Public Policy, University of Adelaide
Mike Young is Professor Emeritus in Water and Environmental Policy at the University of Adelaide, was the Founding Executive Director of its Environment Institute, is a fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences in Australia and is a Distinguished Fellow of the Australian Agricultural and Resource Economics Society. Mike is a specialist in water policy reform and his research led to the unbundling of Australia’s water licences and the resultant development of an efficient trading system and the Australian Government decision to transfer responsibility for the administration of the Murray Darling Basin’s water resources to an independent expertise-based authority. He played a key role in establishing Australia’s National Land and Water Resources Audit. Mike has held the Gough Whitlam and Malcom Fraser Chair at Harvard University, has served on Global Water Partnership's Technical Committee and the World Economic Forum’s Global Agenda Council on Water Security. He was a founding member of the Wentworth Group of Concerned Scientists. In 2006, Mike was awarded Australia’s premier water research prize – the Land and Water Australia Eureka Award for Water Research. He has played a critical role in the consideration of options for the Murray Darling Basin. Prior to joining the University of Adelaide, Mike spent 30 years with CSIRO where, amongst other things, he established their Policy and Economic Research Unit. In 2003, Mike was awarded a Centenary Medal “for outstanding service through environmental economics”. His full curriculum vitae lists over 240 publications.


Dr Erin O'Donnell, Associate Professor, Melbourne Law School
Dr Erin O’Donnell is a Senior Lecturer and ARC Research Fellow at the University of Melbourne Law School. Erin is a water law and policy expert, and she is recognized internationally for her research into the ground-breaking new field of legal rights for rivers. Her work explores the challenges and opportunities these new rights create for protecting the multiple social, cultural and natural values of rivers. Her work is informed by comparative analysis across Australia, Aotearoa New Zealand, the USA, Bangladesh, India, Colombia, and Chile. She has also worked for the World Bank, examining water markets and their role in water security and sustainable development. Since 2018, Erin has been a member of the Birrarung Council, the voice of the Birrarung/Yarra River in Melbourne. Erin works in partnership with Traditional Owners across Australia on a range of projects, including leading the Cultural Water for Cultural Economies project. In 2023, Erin commenced an ARC-funded research fellowship to explore the opportunity of treaty to address aqua nullius, increase Traditional Owner power and resources in water, and create more sustainable and legitimate settler state water laws. Erin’s latest book, Legal Rights for Rivers: Competition, Collaboration, and Water Governance, is available now from Routledge.