Compliance approach and principles

Our compliance approach

We approach compliance by:

• Informing and guiding We help people understand their obligations through new and innovative methods.
• Monitoring We monitor risks and negative impacts to water resources, the environment and community.
• Responding and enforcing We support those who do the right thing by addressing those who don't.

The Water Resource Management Regulatory Strategy (PDF, 552KB) describes our approach for the delivery of our regulatory functions and activities. It includes information on the principles of our regulatory approach, the tools we use, key objectives and activities.

We refer to anyone who is responsible for the core areas we regulate as our ‘regulated community’.

Our principles

The regulatory work we do is guided by a set of principles.

• consistent and fair: we have a consistent and fair approach to how we achieve compliance
• outcomes and risk-based: we use a proactive, outcomes-focused, targeted, risk-based approach for our compliance activities
• supportive: we encourage the community to do the right thing and empower staff to make decisions within our regulatory and governance framework
• adaptive: we monitor our progress and adjust our actions as needed
• accountable and transparent: we do what we say we are going to do, are transparent in our decision making and talk openly about priorities, activities and the results of our work
• safe and well: we support safety and wellbeing of our staff and communities
• responsive: we are timely in how we communicate about compliance and in responding to non-compliance.

Our goal

Our goal is to ensure Queensland’s water resources are managed responsibly and sustainably. This involves balancing the needs of people, the environment and the economy by regulating water use, protecting water quality and safeguarding water infrastructure. We work to secure a reliable and affordable water supply across Queensland.