Thursday, 31 October 2024

Victorian Water Register

Rikkie-Lee TYRRELL (Northern Victoria) (12:42): (724) My question today is for the Minister for Water. Last week, just as the Goulburn to Murray Valley trade season opened, the Victorian Water Register collapsed, leaving 45,000 megalitres of water, worth around $105 per megalitre, unable to be traded between systems. This has caused much frustration and anger within the irrigation community. This exact same problem happened 12 months ago at the opening of the trade season. Can the minister explain why the Victorian Water Register keeps collapsing?

Harriet SHING (Eastern Victoria – Minister for Housing, Minister for Water, Minister for Equality) (12:43): Thank you, Mrs Tyrrell, for that question. We did see an interruption to the management and the operation of the system; you are quite right. This is where again we want irrigators and people who hold licences to be able to access the trading arrangements in a way that is not vulnerable to disadvantage in the market by which water trades occur. I have made it very clear that we need to make sure that not only is any interruption to the system remedied as soon as possible but we understand where and how adjustments can be made to trade to ensure that we do not see any further amplification of disadvantage.

I also want to make sure that we are really clear that the role of DEECA in this is important. DEECA is going to provide, and has been providing, further documentation to people who are part of the market on how the new process will work, and there are two webinars – in fact one today and another at a later date – to explain this new approach. We also want to make sure that we have proposed rescheduling that is explained very clearly to people as part of this process. But again, it is a problem that we have seen an interruption to the trade, such that there has been difficulty for people in accessing the trades. I want to see, again, that we are making sure we have got those relevant rules in place, sufficient clarity to understand how they operate and a good understanding of any loss or deficiency that may occur where that system is interrupted.

Rikkie-Lee TYRRELL (Northern Victoria) (12:45): I thank the minister for her answer. It has been reported that the minister’s department has spent $26 million on a new efficient Victorian Water Register, yet there has been no sign of this being up and running. Can the minister inform the irrigation community when these new efficient water register will be up and running?

Harriet SHING (Eastern Victoria – Minister for Housing, Minister for Water, Minister for Equality) (12:45): Yes, I can, Mrs Tyrrell. Further to the action that I set out in the answer to your substantive question, DEECA has postponed the Goulburn to Murray trade opening to 14 November. This then means that we can use that new randomisation approach that has been designed to take pressure off the Victorian Water Register and also to ensure that when we do have any congestion points created by that first-in-first-served approach the impact of that is effectively neutralised. We want to make sure that DEECA can provide reliable trade facilitation services, and that then goes to the webinars that I referred to in my substantive answer. I would urge people to continue to engage with DEECA, particularly on the way in which they are experiencing the water trade register engagements, so that we can continue to make those improvements over time.