Rachel Siewert (WA, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

I move Greens amendment (14) on sheet 5629:

(14)  Schedule 2, page 304 (after line 16), after item 91, insert:

91A  Part 5 (heading)

Repeal the heading, substitute:

Part 5—Murray-Darling Basin Water Rights Information Service and Register

91B  At the end of Part 5

Add:

103A  Progressively established Basin Water Register

        (1)    The Authority may establish a Guaranteed Water Rights Register in a manner that is consistent with the Basin Plan.

        (2)    The Authority may establish a process enabling the voluntary transfer of registrable water rights issued by States to the Register established under subsection (1).

This amendment relates to the establishment of a basin water register, and it empowers the authority to progressively establish an entitlement register that is of guaranteed integrity and that facilitates both the low-cost registration of interests and the efficient transfers of registrable rights from one entity to another, which is in line with the National Water Initiative. Again, this is an issue that was raised when the Water Act was first introduced, and it was raised during the inquiry. The Greens believe that this is a good way to ensure good water management. Professor Mike Young first suggested it would be a way forward in modernising our water management in the basin. We think it is a pretty compelling argument. To quote Mike Young, he said:

What I am envisaging is that there will be a step on from where we are now, and I hope there is. There must be for the sake of Australia. To me that means that we need to have an authority that is enabled to grow, expand and be proactive. That is why I suggest they should be responsible for pursuing the objects of the act and, in stepping forward, starting to build really good entitlement registers that are much more secure and that give everybody confidence, progressively working through the many issues.

We believe the register will build on the basis of producing a more secure and robust water market, and we think this provides a good base for doing that. We have suggested this as a way forward to ensuring that people have confidence in the water market. It gives the authority a role in ensuring that that happens. It gives the authority a role in establishing and running that register. We think this is a way forward in good water management. If we are serious about changing the way we manage water in the basin and serious about giving the authority the authority to set its mark in terms of that good management then this is the base on which to build that and it should be done in a progressive manner. We commend the amendment to the Senate.