In November, 2002, the Wentworth Group released its Blueprint for a Living Continent. This Blueprint set out a five point plan for securing a sustainable future for our continent and its people.

1. Clarify water property rights and the obligations associated with those rights to give farmers some certainty and to enable water to be recovered for the environment.
2. Restore environmental flows to stressed rivers, such as the River Murray and its tributaries.
3. Immediately end broadscale landclearing of remnant native vegetation and assist rural communities with adjustment. This provides fundamental benefits to water quality, prevention of salinity, prevention of soil loss and conservation of biodiversity.
4. Pay farmers for environmental services (clean water, fresh air, healthy soils). Where we expect farmers to maintain land in a certain way that is above their duty of care, we should pay them to provide those services on behalf of the rest of Australia.
5. Incorporate into the cost of food, fibre and water the hidden subsidies currently borne by the environment, to assist farmers to farm sustainably and profitably in this country.

Blueprint for a Living Continent, 2002.