Minister for Water John Thwaites has announced new permanent trading rules for the remainder of the current irrigation season.
As of close of business 18 December 2006, permanent trading arrangements in Victoria will require a seller's allocation of water to be at least equal to the allocation levels that apply in the buyer's system, protecting other users in the system receiving the traded water.
The new condition on permanent trading in Victoria will ensure current allocations for all customers are secure. This change will no longer allow a shortfall in allocation when trading from the Goulburn, Campaspe and Loddon systems to the Murray system.
Under the previous rules, if 100ML of Goulburn entitlement (24% allocation) was permanently traded to the Victorian Murray system (95% allocation), the buyer received 95ML of allocation in the current season, while the seller only held 24 ML of allocation. The shortfall of 71 ML affects all users.
Traders will now have two options:
- Sellers can either "top up" their unused water to the allocation of the destination system prior to transfer, or
- Buyers can elect to surrender the shortfall volume.
Executive Manager Business and Finance, Trevor Ierino said that "these changes will halt the shortfall in the buying system which previously had to make up the shortfall in allocation".
This anomaly emerged this season due to the low allocation in the Goulburn, Campaspe and Loddon systems as a result of the extended drought.
This change will only affect transfers of permanent unused water entitlement between systems with differing allocations in the current season. All other trades are unaffected.
This change takes effect from close of business 18 December 2006.
More information is available in the downloadable FAQs below or by calling 5833 5523.