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Committee’s report

The committee tabled its report on 9 December 2022. The Government's Response to this report was tabled on 9 March 2023. The Bill was passed with amendment on 14 September 2023.

About the BILL 

On 12 October 2022 the Hon Glenn Butcher MP, Minister for Regional Development and Manufacturing and Minister for Water introduced the Water Legislation Amendment Bill 2022 into the Queensland Parliament. The Bill was referred to the State Development and Regional Industries Committee for detailed consideration and report by 9 December 2022.

View: Introductory speech 
View: Bill 
View: Explanatory Notes 
View: Statement of compatibility

The primary objective of the Bill is to amend the Water Act 2000 (Water Act) to establish a regulatory framework for implementing Queensland’s strengthened policy for measuring the take of non-urban water.

This follows government commitments in response to the Independent Audit of Queensland Non-urban Water Measurement and Compliance report, and the Murray-Darling Basin Compliance Compact.

Currently the Water Act requires holders of a metered entitlement to take water through an approved meter. The Bill proposes to expand existing arrangements to broaden the type of equipment and devices that may be required to ensure that both simple take (for example, where water is pumped directly from a river or an aquifer) and complex take (for example, where overland flow is captured through diversion works and the water is stored in on-farm storage) can be measured. The Bill allows for the installation of telemetry in some areas to improve the receipt of information about water take.

The Bill also proposes that entitlement holders will be required to prepare a management plan which sets out the measurement system that they will use to measure and calculate the water they take with the aim of improving the way overland flow water take is measured and reported. 

The Bill also includes amendments to the Water Act, the Water Supply (Safety and Reliability) Act 2008 (Water Supply Act), and the South-East Queensland Water (Distribution and Retail Restructuring Act) 2009 to improve the operational efficiency of these Acts.

It also makes minor operational and technical amendments to the framework for managing underground water.

Timeline