Mr STEVE WHAN (Monaro—Minister for Skills, TAFE and Tertiary Education) (12:36): I move:
That this bill be now read a second time.
I commend the Parliamentary Secretary for his enthusiasm. I have to give him a tick; I think he has missed speaking on one bill this year. He is an amazing performer in contributing to Parliament, and we very much admire his fabulous work. The Water Legislation Amendment Bill 2024 is all about providing legal clarity and does two important things. Firstly, it provides critical amendments needed to remake three regulations that are relied on to effectively manage water in New South Wales: the Water Management (General) Regulation, the Sydney Water Regulation and the Water NSW Regulation. Secondly, the bill clarifies the legal validity of some licences and approvals that were incorrectly converted from the Water Act 1912 to the Water Management Act 2000.
I will start with the regulation-making powers in the bill. The bill includes a series of amendments to three Acts that are relied on to manage water in New South Wales—the Sydney Water Act, the Water Management Act and the Water NSW Act—to provide clear regulation-making powers. In the course of remaking the regulations that sit under those Acts, as part of a statutory staged repeal process, a need for clearer regulation-making powers for a range of existing provisions was identified. Without clear regulation-making powers in the relevant Acts for those provisions, they cannot be included in the regulations when are they are remade. The provisions are critical to the management of water resources in New South Wales.
All three regulations are due to be remade by 1 September 2025. The amendments in the bill need to be passed in this session of Parliament to ensure that the regulations can be remade by that deadline. Remaking regulations is a significant undertaking. A lot of work goes into reviewing and remaking the regulations to ensure they work as they should. The process involves public consultation on draft regulations and an assessment of the regulatory impact of any changes that are proposed to be made. It is an important and transparent process that takes time. If the bill is not passed in this session, the remakes will need to be postponed. Two of those remakes have already been postponed several times, and the Minister does not want to further postpone or delay a process that is in place to protect the health of our water resources, manage access to those resources and benefit the people of New South Wales. It is vital that our water management legislation and the regulations that support it are clear and legally sound so they can be understood and applied as intended.
The bill ensures that all necessary provisions in the regulations can be remade to safeguard drinking water quality and the infrastructure of Sydney Water, WaterNSW and Essential Water. Critically, this includes regulating and prohibiting access to sensitive areas and allowing authorised officers to direct people to move on from places they should not be. The bill also contains amendments to the Water Management Act to make the Water Management (General) Regulation more legally robust. Some of the amendments in the bill have been identified by the Parliamentary Counsel's Office as including indirect Henry VIII provisions. Those provisions are noted in the explanatory notes of the bill. Henry VIII provisions—which, interestingly, I had never heard of until I came back into Parliament this time around; no doubt they have been around since Henry VIII, so I probably should have—allow an Act to be amended by subordinate legislation. They have been included in the bill because they are essential to enable the remake of the regulations next year.
The bill includes a clear power for the Water Management (General) Regulation to require drought works constructed without the need for an approval to be properly maintained or decommissioned. This change supports a more effective operation of an existing provision in the regulation. This amendment is an indirect Henry VIII provision. The amendment will minimise risks to water resources, other water users, public safety and the environment, and ensure these works, if maintained, can be used in future droughts. The bill includes a clear power for the regulations to deal with the way that water allocation accounts are debited if someone has two or more water access licences. This gives effect to existing statewide rules and avoids the need for every water sharing plan to be amended to include these rules.
The bill includes a clear power for water management plans to require advertising of certain applications for approvals. This will improve the opportunity for the public to have their say on approval decisions. While most advertising rules are contained in the regulations, this change will allow the rules for advertising of applications to be specific to the relevant locations where necessary. The bill includes a clear power to grant exemptions from the mandatory conditions on access licences and approvals, including in relation to metering equipment condition. The bill also includes a clear power to place conditions on some exemptions from the requirement to hold an access licence or approval. These are covered by three amendments to the Water Management Act that are indirect Henry VIII provisions.
It is important that the water management regulation allows conditions to be placed on such exemptions to help alleviate residual risks associated with exempting certain water take and use from licensing and approval requirements. We want to reduce unnecessary red tape for water users, but we need to ensure that we are minimising and removing any residual risks to water sources. The bill also ensures that supplementary Lowbidgee water access licences cannot be cancelled like other specific-purpose access licences can. That subcategory of supplementary water access licence was created so that specific rules could be imposed in relation to flood irrigation on the Lowbidgee flood plains during announced high-flow events in the Murrumbidgee Regulated River Water Source.
The bill confirms the ongoing tenure of those licences: the same as it is for other regulated river supplementary water access licences. Importantly, the bill supports regulations that allow water supply authorities to operate effectively to deliver water supply and sewerage services to communities, businesses and industry within their area of operations. That includes regulations in relation to minimising water waste and misuse, regulating plumbing works and drainage works, optimising cost recovery, ensuring proper measurement of water taken, providing access to fire hydrants, and constructing works and infrastructure. The bill ensures that Essential Water, which is the operating division of Essential Energy that supplies water and sewerage services to Broken Hill, can also regulate the discharge of liquid trade waste into sewerage systems, undertake emergency plumbing works and repairs, and deal with land that drains into its two drinking water reservoirs.
All of these changes maintain the status quo while providing legal certainty and allowing key existing provisions to remain in the regulations when they are remade next year. The bill does not change current Government policy or practice. We are simply shoring up what is already in place and providing room for improvements to be made in the future. Without the amendments proposed in the bill, there would be impacts on water supply and sewerage services to the people of New South Wales by WaterNSW, Sydney Water Corporation and water supply authorities. A failure to pass the bill would mean additional risks to the quality of drinking water in Sydney's key water supply catchment areas if the activities in those areas cannot be adequately regulated or prohibited. It would negatively impact communities and water users across the State. The bill removes legal uncertainty and prevents all of these negative impacts.
The second thing the bill does is amend the Water Management Act to validate approximately 169 licences and 32 works approvals across New South Wales. Bulk conversions of entitlements occurred as the Water Management Act was being implemented across the State through water sharing plans. Historical systems were not always up to scratch. An administrative system error did not recognise that some licences were expired when the water‑sharing plans commenced and those entitlements were converted from the Water Act 1912 to the Water Management Act 2000. Historical records do not tell us whether the Government at the time communicated with those licence holders about their licences needing to be renewed. Clearly, some of government record keeping was lax in the past. The issue was identified years after conversion.
Those licences and approvals appear valid in the water licensing system, have always been accounted for in relevant water‑sharing plans and in the Murray-Darling Basin Sustainable Diversion Limits, and have always been treated by government, WaterNSW and licence holders as valid. The Water Legislation Amendment Bill 2024 removes any doubt about their validity. Validating these entitlements will give legal certainty to licence holders and to past trading in water rights and allocations. It allows the affected licences to be part of the water market and maintains current water sharing across the State. There are no identifiable risks to water sources, dependent ecosystems, water resource sharing, other licence holders or third parties from validating these licences and approvals. Finally, the bill transfers uncommenced provisions from the Water Management Amendment Act 2010 and the Water Management Amendment Act 2014 into the Water Management Act 2000, which allows for those amending Acts to be repealed. That is just a housekeeping exercise.
As mentioned, the bill is important to give effect to minor changes to multiple Acts that do not warrant bringing separate individual bills before the House. The bill provides amendments for legal certainty. They support the continuation of current operations to protect water quality, deliver services efficiently and effectively, and allow licence holders to continue to access water. These are the first amendments in an organised and prioritised legislative program being pursued by the Government. The program balances enabling time-critical amendments with the need for strategic reform in enforcement, planning, licensing and approvals. Work is underway to bring proposals to Parliament over the next 18 months for significant improvements to water enforcement, planning, licensing and approvals for the benefit of the people, culture and environment of New South Wales. I commend the bill to the House.
Second Reading Debate
Ms STEPH COOKE (Cootamundra) (12:47): I contribute to debate on the Water Legislation Amendment Bill 2024 and confirm the Coalition's support for the bill. This omnibus bill will clarify the regulation‑making powers of State agencies and corporations and, importantly, the authority of the Minister for Water in relation to water access licences or exemptions and exemptions in times of emergency. Importantly, the bill validates a small number of licences that have been made previously and whose status has been made ambiguous during transition from the Water Act 1912 to the Water Management Act 2000. During consultation with irrigators and water users across New South Wales, the need for clear and consistent regulatory powers was raised with the Coalition and with me as shadow Minister for Water. The Opposition's view is that in order for our primary industries, farms and communities to thrive, they need clear communication regarding water policy.
The omnibus bill amends the Water Management Act 2000, the Sydney Water Act 1994 and the Water NSW Act 2014 and repeals the Water Management Act 2010 and the Water Management Act 2014. It clarifies the regulation-making powers of the Minister and of State agencies and corporations, and includes Henry VIII provisions enabling subordinate documents to empower the Minister in relation to water access licence conditions or exemptions, and exemptions in relation to emergencies and the operation of public authorities. It also validates a limited number of licences and approvals made ambiguous, as I said previously, by transition from the Water Act 1912 to the Water Management Act 2000. The bill is a piece of housekeeping legislation, but it is important. It aims to provide legislative clarity where identified through operations under these Acts. It provides scope, including both powers and their limitations, in relation to the Government's management of water resources.
Importantly, the Water Legislation Amendment Bill 2024 solidifies policies and practice developed over time under both Coalition and Labor governments. Engaging with stakeholders at every level is critical for northern and southern basin users and water users across the State understanding their rights and responsibilities and the decision‑makers powers that may impact their work. From water operators in Sydney's growing suburbs to irrigators on the Murray, cotton growers on the Namoi and national water‑use bodies, understanding the scope of the Government's management of New South Wales water resources can help us all make more informed choices about how our most precious resource is managed. Across the regions we have confirmed broad-based support for the bill. I thank the Government for consulting with Sydney Water, WaterNSW and Essential Water in the drafting of the legislation.
Scrutiny must be given to the Government's application of the changes brought about by the bill, especially during statutory reviews of the regulations. The bill affects thousands of irrigators and water users across New South Wales. The Opposition is pleased to support measures that encourage transparency and scrutiny. It is important to be mindful that even in administrative and housekeeping reform, we must remain accountable to our regional and rural communities in the, at times, highly contested and evolving water space. The House has heard on many occasions the concerns of water users regarding proposed reforms in many areas across water management. Most recently, concerns have been raised about the northern basin Connectivity Expert Panel; in the south and on the Gwydir, in relation to the draft Landholder Negotiation Scheme Regulation; the future of the National Water Agreement; and the next Murray‑Darling Basin Plan and associated buybacks. On that basis, we would argue that transparency and clarity has never been more crucial for our water policy.
As opportunities to consider and review legislation are brought forward by the Government through the statutory review process, we would encourage a fair and open interrogation of those Acts and their suitability, and how we could further improve our water policy for years to come. The Coalition will be keeping a close watch on the 2025 statutory reviews mentioned in the second reading speech that will occur throughout the course of next year and which should be wrapped up by September 2025. We will look carefully for potential impacts on urban, rural and regional communities and will not hesitate to call the Government to account if we believe the people of New South Wales deserve better. In the meantime, the Coalition supports the bill, but I reiterate the need for transparency and accountability for regulatory powers. I commend the bill to the House.
Mr EDMOND ATALLA (Mount Druitt) (12:54): I make a brief contribution in support of the Water Legislation Amendment Bill 2024. The amendments in the bill will protect New South Wales communities, the environment and water users. Fixing regulation-making powers in the Acts will ensure there are no unnecessary changes for water users and communities when the regulations are remade next year. Key provisions relied on by the Government, State-owned corporations and water supply authorities to sustainably manage water resources can remain in those regulations. The bill meets community needs and protects public health by ensuring water supply authorities are properly authorised to carry out their existing functions and operations. It ensures these authorities can continue to provide essential water and sewerage services without interruption.
Without these amendments, authorities would stop operating as they usually do or become less efficient through having to rely on cumbersome workarounds. This would impact service delivery, and there could be increased operational costs and risks to public safety. For example, the amendments provide clear legislative power for water supply authorities to deal with the installation, maintenance and supply of water to fire hydrants. Without this clear power in the Act, the existing regulations that relate to fire hydrants cannot be remade and water supply authorities will not be able to legally provide the critical services needed by communities to fight fires.
Another example relates to Essential Water, a water supply authority that supplies water to more than 10,000 people in Broken Hill and surrounding areas. The amendments allow Essential Water to continue to regulate the discharge of liquid trade waste into the sewerage systems and undertake emergency plumbing works on its infrastructure when and where it is needed. The amendments in the bill maintain the status quo so Essential Water can continue to optimise infrastructure performance, achieve environmental outcomes, ensure proper cost recovery and minimise service delivery costs, all while meeting the needs of its customers and protecting public safety.
The bill also maximises benefits and minimises costs to regional communities in times of drought. The amendments allow the regulations to require drought works, like groundwater bores and standpipes, to be properly maintained or decommissioned. This avoids risks to public safety and reduces costs to the community by ensuring these works do not become unusable over time or cause damage to water sources when they start to deteriorate. The amendments also contribute to protecting the quality of water supplied to the people of New South Wales.
The Sydney Water Act amendments will ensure that Sydney Water can continue regulating access to and use of the controlled areas of its catchment, including Prospect Reservoir, which provides up to 80 per cent of Sydney's drinking water. This power is critical to Sydney Water's operations. It enables Sydney Water to protect water supply infrastructure from damage and drinking water from contamination, which is even more important if public access and use of controlled areas at Prospect Reservoir are to increase. The same applies to WaterNSW and the special areas and controlled areas that it manages.
The amendments will protect our health by ensuring that the regulations relied on to provide high quality drinking water to a large portion of the New South Wales population can remain unchanged. In addition, validating licences and approvals affected by conversion issues protects their holders from uncertainty without impacting on other water users, third parties and the environment. These entitlements have been accounted for in water sharing plans and the Murray-Darling Basin sustainable diversion limits since their commencement.
Many have also changed hands through legitimate processes, such as temporary and permanent water trades. The bill removes any doubt about the validity of those licences and approvals, as well as any associated dealings, such as water trades, that have occurred. This resolution has the least impact on all affected parties and ensures that the holders of these licences and approvals can continue to access and use water when they need it, without the risk of losing their entitlements. Validating these licences and approvals helps maintain accuracy in water sharing and planning processes and supports the program of water sharing plan remakes. The bill is an important and effective way to ensure continuity of essential water supply and sewerage services, secure drinking water quality and protect the health of the people of New South Wales. I commend the bill to the House.
Ms LIZA BUTLER (South Coast) (13:00): I support the Water Legislation Amendment Bill 2024. The bill protects water as a vital public asset that is critical to our health and wellbeing and the health and wellbeing of our environments and cultures. It does this by ensuring that WaterNSW, Sydney Water and Essential Water can continue regulating access to and the use of controlled, restricted and special areas around water sources in their catchments. Regulating these areas is key to ensuring the protection of water supply infrastructure from damage and drinking water from contamination. State owned corporations like Sydney Water and WaterNSW, along with water supply authorities like Essential Water in the Far West of our State, deliver essential water supply services to our homes, businesses and public spaces 24 hours a day, seven days a week. With over 5½ million customers, they service 61 per cent of the current New South Wales population. Some water supply authorities also provide safe, affordable and reliable sewerage services to customers.
As members have been informed, a need for clearer regulation-making powers was identified for several critical provisions in the current versions of the regulations. The bill is the best opportunity to remove any doubt and ensure that the essential functions of State owned corporations and water supply authorities, as set out in their respective regulations, are appropriately authorised. This bill does not give additional powers to these entities but ensures the continuity of critical services to the community through appropriate management of water sources. Imagine for a moment that these utilities could not lawfully protect their drinking water dams, reservoirs, pumping stations and treatment plants from damage, pollution or contamination through restricting access by people and stock animals, setting out what activities are acceptable in these areas and sanctioning those who breach the regulations. If the regulations were remade next year without the relevant provisions included in the bill, these utilities will not be able to protect these critical assets and areas appropriately.
For example, the Sydney Water Regulation currently allows Sydney Water to prohibit access to controlled areas, including the land at Warragamba Dam surrounding water supply infrastructure, the land along the Warragamba pipeline and Upper Canal, and Prospect Reservoir—all critical to Sydney's drinking water supply. The regulation also allows Sydney Water to issue directions to move people on from those areas. The power to issue directions to move people on has been exercised since the Sydney Water Regulation was established in 2017, including when assisting with police operations. The regulation also provides for fines to be issued if requirements to control waste and pollution and protect infrastructure are not complied with. It is important that these powers can be retained in the future.
It is not just metropolitan areas that could be affected. WaterNSW's ability to prohibit and manage access and activities in the controlled and special areas of its area of operations is affected. This area includes the Greater Sydney area but also regional New South Wales, Menindee Lakes, Chaffey Dam, Copeton Dam, Burrendong Dam, Carcoar Dam, and many more. Essential Water's ability to prohibit and manage access and activities in the vicinity of its dams and related infrastructure could be affected, risking the supply to approximately 10,500 customers in Broken Hill, Menindee, Silverton and Sunset Strip. In summary, the operations of Sydney Water, WaterNSW and water supply authorities such as Essential Water prevent damage to water supply infrastructure and contamination of our drinking water supplies. They ensure the continuity of water supply services to communities throughout New South Wales. The bill is essential to avoid unnecessary impacts on the ability of these utilities to protect our drinking water supplies and infrastructure. I commend the bill to the House.
Mr GREG WARREN (Campbelltown) (13:04): I am delighted to make a brief contribution to debate on the Water Legislation Amendment Bill 2024. I acknowledge the work of the Minister for Water, departmental staff and her team in bringing this legislation to the House today. I also acknowledge the Minister for Skills, TAFE and Tertiary Education acting on behalf of the Minister in the other place. The bill ensures that things keep working as they are. It provides clarity for those responsible for delivering our water supplies, water users and the people of New South Wales. For the benefit of the House, I reiterate what the bill does.
It provides a clear legislative basis for necessary regulations so they can be remade within statutory time frames; it ensures that Sydney Water, WaterNSW and water supply authorities are appropriately authorised to exercise functions set out in the regulations; it ensures that the Government maintains regulatory oversight of activities that pose potential risks to water resources; it promotes the continued sustainable management of water without excessive red tape or unnecessary burden on water users, businesses, government and those supplying and distributing water to our communities; and it validates longstanding water entitlements that were affected by conversion issues during the transition from the Water Act 1912 to the Water Management Act 2000. The amendments in the bill maintain the intent of the current regulatory provisions. For example, the bill allows Essential Water, as a water supply authority, to maintain essential services to communities and businesses by ensuring emergency plumbing works can be performed effectively and efficiently.
It does this by allowing Essential Water to continue to exempt appropriate persons, such as its own employees or contractors, from holding a plumbing permit when emergency works need to be carried out. The bill establishes clear and explicit legislative powers for existing regulations. Failing to make the amendments contained in the bill would lead to the need to rely on alternative solutions, such as policy frameworks and operational workarounds, to fill the regulatory gaps. These alternatives would be onerous and resource intensive for government and water supply authorities, and difficult to understand and implement. They would be more costly to water users, communities, businesses and industry than shoring up the regulation-making powers in these Acts. For example, without the amendment that clarifies water allocation account debiting rules, each water sharing plan would need to be amended to include statewide account debiting rules where water supply work is nominated in relation to two or more access licences.
Failing to make the amendments in the bill would result in a lack of regulatory oversight of activities that could pose risks to water resources. For example, without the fixes in the bill, there would be no oversight of the maintenance and decommissioning of drought works such as groundwater bores and standpipes. These works could fall into disrepair and cause damage to the water source they are connected to, impacting on neighbouring properties, other water users and the environment. The requirement to advertise approval applications in water management plans, such as floodplain management plans, would also fall away. This would decrease transparency and increase potential negative impacts to water resources, as well as nearby properties and businesses. There would be reduced opportunities for water users and community members to have their say on applications for things like flood work approvals.
The bill maintains the protection of our drinking water by enabling WaterNSW and Sydney Water to regulate activities that threaten our water supplies and critical infrastructure. If aspects of the WaterNSW regulation or the Sydney Water regulation cannot be remade next year due to lack of clear legislative power, those authorities would be unable to enforce certain restrictions on the access to, and the use of, controlled and special areas. Efficient and effective management of activities carried out within those catchment areas is vital to ensuring we continue to have access to quality drinking water.
The bill provides certainty by validating licences and approvals affected by conversion errors. Those licences are still in use and are relied upon by their holders to access the water they need. A single bill with provisions fixing that issue, alongside amendments to shore up the regulations, is an efficient use of the time of both the Parliament and Parliamentary Counsel. The critical amendments to the bill maintain the intent of the original provisions and keep things functioning as they do currently. For those reasons I support the bill. I commend the bill to the House.
Mr STEVE WHAN (Monaro—Minister for Skills, TAFE and Tertiary Education) (13:10): In reply: I thank the shadow Minister, the member for Mount Druitt, the member for South Coast and the member for Campbelltown for contributing to debate on the Water Legislation Amendment Bill 2024. I appreciate their comments on the issues. The shadow Minister made very constructive comments and I thank her. She foreshadowed that the regulations made under the bill will need to be scrutinised as they go forward. That is absolutely appropriate. We would not expect any less. I appreciate her commentary on that.
It is not the right time to flag a number of other issues that have not been gone into in detail in this debate, but some of those will present challenges. I wholeheartedly agree on the northern basin challenges and the re‑writing of the Federal water agreement. That is a significant piece of work in the water space for Australia overall. I have had a bit to do with that in the past. It has a lot of implications for how we manage water and new projects and a whole range of things. The future Basin Plan and buybacks are topical and we have talked about them in this place. I agree that, as we move forward, transparency in how those are undertaken is critical.
It is also important that we implement the things that we have agreed to implement so that we are not being punished, essentially, with buybacks because we have not managed to implement elements of the Basin Plan. Most members in this House would probably agree that we do not want to see buybacks, but we certainly need to progress some of the prerequisite measures in the Basin Plan, including those that were supposed to go in for the down water and many other detailed things, which I will not go into otherwise we would be here all day.
The bill makes minor but important amendments to the water legislation. They respond to the agenda of the Parliamentary Counsel's Office to reform regulations to ensure that clear legal powers exist for regulation provisions. We are working to avoid postponements of the three regulation remakes affected, and to ensure that Sydney Water, WaterNSW and water supply authorities such as Essential Water are appropriately authorised to exercise their functions. The bill ensures that we can continue to manage water according to the principles and objects of the Act, and continue to do what we need to do to ensure that water is managed sustainably, effectively and efficiently at no extra cost to the public or government.
These are the first amendments, as I said in my second reading speech, that the water Minister will introduce during this Parliament. The introduction of this legislation balances enabling time critical amendments with the need for strategic reform in enforcement, planning, licensing and approvals. Work on those strategic reforms is underway. I thank the staff at the New South Wales Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water for their work and for making sure that people have confidence in our legislation, and that it is clear, coherent, understandable and consistent. I also thank the Minister for her work in this area and the Minister's staff and the staff from the Parliamentary Counsel's Office for their work in moving the bill forward.
TEMPORARY SPEAKER (Ms Donna Davis): The question is that this bill be now read a second time.
Motion agreed to.
Third Reading
Mr STEVE WHAN: I move:
That this bill be now read a third time.
Motion agreed to.
