The Victorian Government has introduced new carryover rules aimed at better protecting reliability of seasonal allocations against water holders’ entitlements.

 

State Minister for Water, Peter Walsh, said that the changes will take effect from July next year and were made following extensive work by the Carryover Review Committee.

 

“The Carryover Review Committee was set up by the Government earlier this year to assess the carryover framework on the Murray, Goulburn and Campaspe water systems,” Mr Walsh said.

 

“The Committee brought together representatives of irrigators, environmental water holders, and rural and urban water corporations from across northern Victoria..

 

“The Committee made a series of recommendations for changes in its report and I have accepted all but one of the recommendations.

 

Mr Walsh said the most crucial changes were the alteration to the spill rule on the Murray storages, and the limiting of the amount people can carry over at the end of the season to the volume of their entitlement.

 

Other changes to the carryover rules include:

  • Introduction of provisions to allow water holders to easily relinquish unused allocation if they do not wish to carry it over, with the water then used for seasonal allocation in the following year.
  • Introduction of an early reserve policy on the Murray system, similar to the Goulburn system early reserve policy.
  • The amount of water set aside for the early reserve policy for both the Murray and Goulburn systems will take into account the delivery efficiencies achieved by the Goulburn Murray Water Connections Program.

 

“With these new rules in places, Victorian irrigators will still have the most flexible carryover provisions in the country while better safeguarding the ongoing reliability of seasonal allocation,” Mr Walsh said.

 

The Carryover Review Committee’s full report, details of all of the new carryover rule and allocation trade changes, and a new carryover calculator are on the Water Register website http://waterregister.vic.gov.au/Public/Carryoverreview.aspx