Western Australian Current Acts Western Australian Current Acts (1) The Minister, or
an officer of the Department authorised by the Minister for the purpose, may
institute and maintain any proceeding in any court whether such proceeding be
for any civil remedy or for the recovery or enforcement of any penalty against
any person for illegally diverting or taking or for polluting the water of any
watercourse, wetland or underground water source, or for unlawfully
interfering with the bed thereof.
(2) In such
proceedings it shall not be necessary for the Minister to show that the Crown
or any other person has sustained damage by such illegal diversion or taking
of water or unlawful interference with such bed; nor that the Crown is a
riparian owner or otherwise entitled to the use or to the protection of the
watercourse, wetland or underground water source from which water is illegally
diverted or taken, or the water of which is polluted, or the bed of which is
unlawfully interfered with; but the Minister shall be entitled to judgment in
the Crown’s favour if it be proved that the water has been illegally
diverted or taken or polluted, or that the bed has been unlawfully interfered
with; and the Minister shall, in the discretion of the court, be entitled to
the costs and expenses of the proceedings against the person by whom the court
in its discretion shall order such costs and expenses to be paid.
[Section 26J inserted: No. 119 of 1984 s. 3;
amended: No. 25 of 1985 s. 279 and 287; No. 73 of 1995 s. 117 and 138; No. 49
of 2000 s. 14(5) and 15; No. 74 of 2003 s. 103(3); No. 38 of 2007 s. 73.]