MEDIA RELEASE

Public water rights advocacy group, Fair Water Use, believes that Australians should be extremely concerned about the role of the ACCC in policing the highly contentious Water Act 2007 and associated Water Market Rules 2009; the latter scheduled to take full effect on December 31, 2009. The transitional period for the Water Market and Water Charge (Termination fees) Rules 2009 ended yesterday.

The stated objectives of the Water Act are to:

• manage the resources of Murray–Darling Basin in the national interest

• promote the use and management of the Murray–Darling Basin resources in a way that optimises economic, social and environmental outcomes

• improve water security for all users of Murray–Darling Basin water

• free up the trade of water resources in the Murray–Darling Basin

Fair Water Use believes that the integrity of the ACCC will be compromised by its role in enforcing this legislation. A reading of the Enforcement Guidelines – Water Market and Water Charge Rules reveals that, far from acting as corporate watchdog and public protector, it appears to be charged with the responsibility of ensuring that water providers do not act so rapaciously as to engender public opposition to the Water Act itself.

The essential problem is that the Commonwealth Government seems not to comprehend that the resources of the Murray-Darling Basin cannot not be truly managed “in the national interest” as long it is persists with its aim to “free-up trade of water resources” in the Basin; a policy that has yet to be put to any electorate, federal or state and exposes a vital and rapidly dwindling public asset to the ravages and social inequities of the open market.

Fair Water Use calls upon the Rudd Government to demonstrate its social conscience by allowing Australians to have their say on the issue of privatisation of their water. Until the Minister for Climate Change and Water receives a popular mandate to do otherwise, following federal election or referendum, she must suspend implementation of the Water Market Rules 2009.