Commonwealth of Australia Explanatory Memoranda

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WATER BILL 2007

                              2004-2005-2006-2007



      THE PARLIAMENT OF THE COMMONWEALTH OF AUSTRALIA



                        HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES



                               WATER BILL 2007


            SUPPLEMENTARY EXPLANATORY MEMORANDUM


             Amendments to be Moved on Behalf of the Government


 (Circulated by authority of the Minister for the Environment and Water Resources,
                      the Honourable Malcolm Turnbull, MP)


EXPLANATION OF AMENDMENTS (1) TO (26)

  1. Clauses 77 and 83 provide for payments to water access entitlement holders in
     certain circumstances where the value of the entitlement is reduced as a result
     of a reduction in allocations or the reliability of allocations.

  2. Amendments (1) to (26) modify all references to the terms `granted or issued'
     in clauses 77 and 83 to `granted, issued or authorised'. The purpose of these
     amendments is to clarify that water access entitlements may be created by
     authorisation, as well as by grant or issue, and to provide for payments where
     entitlements are so authorised. This change is consistent with the initial intent
     of the drafting but is included to recognise the different ways in which
     entitlements may be created in the different jurisdictions of the Murray
     Darling Basin.

  3. The term `water access entitlements' in these clauses, as for elsewhere in the
     Bill, has the meaning provided for in clause 4 of the Bill (Definitions). This
     definition is consistent with the National Water Initiative and provides that a
     water access entitlement is a perpetual or ongoing entitlement, by or under a
     law of a State, to exclusive access to a share of the water resources of a water
     resource plan area.

  4. An ongoing entitlement includes for example an entitlement that has no
     defined expiry date, or an entitlement that is granted in accordance with a
     water resource plan with a defined term, but where there is a right of renewal
     or an understanding that the entitlement will be renewed under subsequent
     water resource plans.