Victorian Water Trading Annual Report 2015/16
October 28th 2016
Market transparency is a key focus of Water for Victoria – the state water plan released last week – which looks to strengthen market tools so customers can make more informed decisions to support families and businesses.
The Victorian Government has released its annual report on water trading across the state. The report provides important information to the market, improving transparency and confidence. It complements Aither’s annual report for the southern connected MDB by providing detailed information across the whole of Victoria.
Some highlights from the report are:
- Total allocation transfer volumes have increased to record levels in northern Victoria although only 29% were clearly identifiable as commercial trade. By volume, over 50% of transfers were within environmental water holders.
- The Victorian GMID and Lower Murray regions were large net purchasers of water allocations from New South Wales and South Australia, highlighting the benefits of interstate trading for Victoria.
- Almost 700 GL of environmental water was transferred to other states (presumably South Australia).
- A range of limits on allocation trade movement was reached in 2015/16. This will affect water users in 2016/17 and lead to price differentials across the southern connected MDB.
- 98.77% of allocation trades were approved and processing times continued to improve, highlighting the benefits of Victoria’s administrative reforms and market leading Water Register.
- There were only four allocation trades in Western Victoria in 2015/16 despite the very dry conditions. This highlights the potential benefits of further market development in the west as flagged in the recently released Victorian Water Plan.