3 ms·

Do you have a source for this? I have a friend who is a farmer in Australia, they trade water rights, so these two concepts seem opposed. [updated] As per a co

Do you have a source for this? I have a friend who is a farmer in Australia, they trade water rights, so these two concepts seem opposed. [updated] As per a comment below, Australia and the Darling in particular have a water market https://www.mdba.gov.au/managing-water/water-markets-and-trade https://www.mdba.gov.au/managing-water/water-markets-and-tra...

moomin 7y ago
Ouch. I’m 20 years out of date. There is indeed a market in water rights now, but it has problems. Here’s a reference: https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/australia-news/2019/sep/16/nsw-government-faces-crunch-call-on-water-rights-as-drought-deepens https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/australia... I read somewhere (can’t find the link) that the rights are allocated on the basis of the previous year’s flow. As you can see from the article, this still means people are pulling out water when there’s not enough water to go around. (There’s the usual complaints about speculation, but IME if you don’t have speculators you don’t have a functioning market. There’s plenty of data from regular financial markets about this.) Apologies.
manicdee 7y ago
The market is a sham, with overallocation of water resources being done by the Minister responsible as favours for party sponsors. Agribusinesses are growing rice, cotton, and almonds in the most arid farming region in the world. The MDBA is a toothless regulator with the government deliberately reducing their budget any time policing or enforcement action is actually performed. The MDBA could be a self-funded statutory authority if it was allowed to collect water licensing fees directly, with approvals for dams and other water works going through the MDBA instead of the various states. Ideally there would be no scope for ministerial direction, or at least any such direction would only be through publicly visible instruments. Also the NDBA should have the authority to demolish illegal dams and water-affecting earth works. For the moment the worst it can do is write strongly worded letters. And in the meantime we have Queensland farmers continuing to claim that all the water falling on their land should be theirs to do with as they please.

moomin 7y ago

Ouch. I’m 20 years out of date. There is indeed a market in water rights now, but it has problems. Here’s a reference: https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/australia-news/2019/sep/16/nsw-government-faces-crunch-call-on-water-rights-as-drought-deepens https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/australia... I read somewhere (can’t find the link) that the rights are allocated on the basis of the previous year’s flow. As you can see from the article, this still means people are pulling out water when there’s not enough water to go around. (There’s the usual complaints about speculation, but IME if you don’t have speculators you don’t have a functioning market. There’s plenty of data from regular financial markets about this.) Apologies.

manicdee 7y ago

The market is a sham, with overallocation of water resources being done by the Minister responsible as favours for party sponsors. Agribusinesses are growing rice, cotton, and almonds in the most arid farming region in the world. The MDBA is a toothless regulator with the government deliberately reducing their budget any time policing or enforcement action is actually performed. The MDBA could be a self-funded statutory authority if it was allowed to collect water licensing fees directly, with approvals for dams and other water works going through the MDBA instead of the various states. Ideally there would be no scope for ministerial direction, or at least any such direction would only be through publicly visible instruments. Also the NDBA should have the authority to demolish illegal dams and water-affecting earth works. For the moment the worst it can do is write strongly worded letters. And in the meantime we have Queensland farmers continuing to claim that all the water falling on their land should be theirs to do with as they please.