Development of advice on Water Trading Rules

Development of advice

The ACCC released its draft advice to the Murray–Darling Basin Authority on the development of the water trading rules on 17 December 2009.

The draft advice sets out advice and recommendations on a range of matters relating to water trading. These matters include restrictions on trade, administrative processes and information requirements for a functional water market. This advice follows the March 2009 issues paper and the September 2009 position paper and has been prepared after consideration of submissions received during the development phase.

Submissions received

The ACCC received a number of submissions from stakeholders and interested parties during the development of the Water Trading Rules advice.

Frontier Economics Consultancy report - Draft Advice

The consultancy report by Frontier Economics entitled Changing extraction location between water systems – ‘tagging’ and alternatives is referenced in chapter 6 of the draft advice and is available on request to water@accc.gov.au.

Consultancy reports  - Position Paper

The ACCC commissioned a number of reports to inform its development of the water trading rules position paper:

• Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics (ABARE), Survey of irrigators on water trading in the Murray-Darling Basin 2007-08.
• Frontier Economics, Volumetric restrictions on water entitlement trade.
• Sinclair Knight Merz (SKM), Water Trade and the Hydrological Connectivity of Surface Water Systems.
• Sinclair Knight Merz (SKM), Water Trade Between Water Sources—Water Trade Involving Farm Dams And Unregulated Catchments.

These reports are referenced throughout the position paper.

The reports by ABARE and SKM are available upon request to water@accc.gov.au.

The report by Frontier Economics on volumetric restrictions on water entitlement trade is available below.