IPART MDBA expenditure review

In 2016, Aither delivered a review of past and proposed future expenditure for WaterNSW’s rural bulk water services for the New South Wales Independent Pricing and Regulatory Tribunal (IPART). In connection to that review, IPART requested that the review team undertake a separate review of Murray-Darling Basin Authority (MDBA) expenditure and cost sharing and recovery in NSW (this report). The MDBA expenditures are not currently part of the regulatory framework in NSW and therefore not included in WaterNSW expenditure review processes. The main objectives and scope of this review were to:

1. Document and explain the management and cost sharing arrangements for shared Murray-Darling Basin assets and programs in NSW
2. Examine the planned expenditure for the shared assets or programs
3. Assess whether cost-sharing arrangements are being followed correctly in NSW.

This report documents those arrangements and provides a high level review of the costs and costsharing in NSW.