ACCC advises on water trading rules

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has given its advice on future
water trading rules in the Murray-Darling Basin.
The Murray-Darling Basin Authority is developing the rules as part of its Basin
Plan, a document that will set out the future of water use in the drought-ravaged
system.
The states and their infrastructure operators remain in charge of water rights, but
the plan aims to better coordinate the process in which irrigators can buy and sell
rights to take water from the river.
It will outline the removal of barriers to trading water rights, the terms and
processes for trading water, the manner in which trades take place and the provision
of information to enable trading to take place.
The ACCC's advice will be made public when the proposed Basin Plan is released in
mid-2010.