Water (Local Management Arrangements) Amendment Bill 2016

Overview

This bill changes Queensland's water laws to let SunWater's regional channel irrigation schemes be handed over to new entities owned and run by the irrigators who use them. It sets up a formal transfer process, starting with the Emerald, Eton, St George and Theodore schemes, and provides tax exemptions, staff protections and rules for moving assets, contracts and licences across to the new operators.

Who it affects

Around 3,000 irrigation customers in regional Queensland, SunWater employees working in the affected schemes, and regional communities that depend on irrigated agriculture.

Key changes

• Emerald, Eton, St George and Theodore irrigation schemes can be transferred out of SunWater to new irrigator-owned entities, with four more schemes (Bundaberg, Burdekin-Haughton, Lower Mary and Mareeba-Dimbulah) possibly to follow
• SunWater staff named on an employee register move to the new entity on transfer day without a redundancy payout, keeping their pay, leave, superannuation and continuity of service
• On transfer day the new entity automatically becomes the water service provider, and existing customers are migrated onto a standard supply contract based on their current SunWater contract
• The transfers are exempt from state duty and a range of other state fees and charges, and Ministerial decisions setting up the transfers cannot be challenged under the Judicial Review Act (except for jurisdictional error)
• The Eton entity (and possibly others) can convert into an irrigator-owned cooperative under the Cooperatives Act 1997 on a faster timeline than normally applies
• The new chapter inserted by the bill expires 10 years after commencement, and a transitional regulation-making power lets the government patch gaps in the first year