Water Management Amendment (Water Access Licence Register Reform) Act 2024

The NSW Parliament passed Water Management Amendment (Water Access Licence Register Reform) Act 2024 (the Act) in October 2024. The reforms in the Act provide important improvements to the transparency and operation of water markets and will be progressively rolled out across 2025-2026.

The Act includes four key reforms:

1. Water register improvements

2. Supporting Commonwealth water market reforms

3. Dispute resolution for Irrigation Corporations

4. Reporting of foreign beneficiaries of trusts which hold or co-hold water access licences

Further information will be provided on what these changes mean for stakeholders when the reforms are implemented.

1. Water register improvements

The Act makes two key changes. First, there is a new positive obligation on the Minister (or delegate) to keep the Water Access Licence Register up to date. While this is generally already done, the Act makes it a positive obligation to do so.

Second, the Act requires the Minister to make available a public water register. Much of the required content of this register is already available on the NSW Water Register on the WaterNSW website, and further upgrades and enhancements will be made in 2025 to the NSW Water Register to meet the requirements of the Act.

The public water register is not permitted to include personal information within the meaning of the Privacy and Personal Information Protection Act 1998, Part 6, or any other information prescribed by regulation

2. Supporting Commonwealth water market reforms

The NSW Government is working closely with the Australian and other Murray-Darling Basin State governments to implement water market reforms, in response to an earlier inquiry undertaken by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission into the operation of water markets.

The Act includes provisions that will support the implementation of these reforms in NSW.

In 2025, we anticipate that the Australian Government will finalise a Water Market Intermediaries Code. This is intended to be adopted in NSW as the Code of Conduct for Brokers required under the Act.

In 2026, most of the data and system reforms under the Australian Government’s program are expected to be adopted. At this time, we will consider the regulations required to adopt the necessary framework of unique identifiers as set out in the Act.

3. Dispute resolution for Irrigation Corporations

The Act requires that a condition of the operating licences of statutory Irrigation Corporations include that they must be a member of a dispute resolution organisation.

This will require considerable consultation with Irrigation Corporations as well as potential dispute resolution organisations through 2025.

4. Reporting of foreign beneficiaries of trusts which hold or co-hold water access licences

The Act will require that trusts (through the people who act as trustees) report annually to the Minister for Water the name and contact details of foreign persons who are beneficiaries of the trust.

This reporting is required within 2 months of the end of each financial year, and is intended to commence at the end of the current financial year, with a reporting mechanism planned to be introduced during the 2025-26 financial year.

Information collected by the Minister about foreign beneficiaries will be included in the public water register subject to restrictions in the Act (for example the public water register is not permitted to include personal information).

Acts and regulations | NSW Government Water

Water Transfer Bill

Currently, the Federal Government plans to buy 450 gigalitres of water from NSW in order to flush that water into the ocean.

NSW can not afford for a single drop of water to be lost to the Commonwealth. If this buyback happens, it will devastate rural NSW and the broader NSW economy.

I have introduced the Water Management Amendment (Transfer of Water) Bill 2023 which will prevent the transfer of NSW water to the Federal Government.

Water Register Bill

Why do we need this law change:

When I was elected to parliament, I was shocked to learn I didn’t have to declare my water entitlements in the conflict of interest form they make politicians sign.

We have to declare land, property, jobs and shares. But not water.  

I believe the first step in fixing our water problems is to find out who owns it.  

We know there are politicians, foreign companies, Sydney traders and government departments who own water – and manipulate the water trade – but it’s impossible to identify them.

The current online NSW Water Register prevents people from searching for the water entitlements of companies, individuals and government departments.

Applying for a water licence is currently easier than opening a bank account. People can hide behind a corporate veil, so the general public don't know they're the actual purchaser. 

I’m introducing a bill to parliament to end the secrecy surrounding water ownership in NSW.  

My Bill will:

1. Force NSW politicians to declare their water interests on our conflict of interest form. This includes any water they previously owned in the last five year and any water their spouse owns. 

2. Change the application process for getting a water licence so people can't hide their identity when they apply for their licence. All current licence holders will also have to provide more information about company directors, shareholders and related corporations. 

3. Change the online water register to allow people to search for water holdings of people, companies and government departments. This includes water holdings held within irrigation corporations. 

4. Protect the privacy of mum-and-dad farmers by ensuring the public register does not publish personal phone numbers, emails or residential addresses. 

If you have any comments or suggestions, please email your feedback to murray@parliament.nsw.gov.au

Independent Corruption Bill

The ICAC and Other Independent Commissions Legislation Amendment (Independent Funding) Bill 2022 would ensure that anti-corruption agencies, importantly the Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC), are independently and properly funded.

Corruption has run rife in NSW, and we must ensure that ICAC can do their job without worrying losing their funding. This Bill would mean that ICAC will no longer be reliant on the whims of the Liberal and National Party, or the Government of the day, for its funding. It provides clear oversight on the adequacy of funding for ICAC, the Law Enforcement Conduct Commission, the NSW Electoral Commission and the NSW Ombudsman.

The Bill achieves this by allowing the annual funding of these bodies to be allocated separately from other agencies and from political interference. The Bill creates a parliamentary oversight committee for these agencies to make recommendations on funding priorities, not Cabinet. The Bill also determines that the above mentioned oversight bodies be directly allocated their annual funding through appropriation legislation - rather than funding being allocated to the relevant Minister - so that they are not subject to reductions in funding during the financial year.

Implementing these changes will allow our oversight bodies to do their job. It’s the first step in curtailing the scrouge of corruption that’s undermining our society and economy.