Commonwealth Milestones:
Water Management Partnership Agreements

Water Markets and Trading

Reform Action	Reform Milestones	Dates	
Establish the National Water Market System (NWMS)

The objective of the NWMS is to support timely and low-cost water transfers
across irrigation area boundaries and state borders.	·  NWMS agreement endorsed by First Ministers and announced by the (then) Minister for Climate Change and Water		
	National Water Market website The website is to provide access to summary market information and water market activity reports (volume and price).	·  April 2010 – First release of the National Water Market website to be made public. The site will contain summary market process information.
·  End 2010 – Initial trading
reports to be available on the National Water Market website.
·  End 2012 – National Water
Market website to be fully operational, including enhanced trade reports.	
	Common Registry System Commonwealth to develop a Common Registry System (CRS) for all states and territories except for Victoria and Queensland.	·  May 2010 – Technical discovery documents accessing the capacity of current State & Territory registers to be completed.
·  June 2010 – Commence
conceptual design models for the CRS and formulation of IT system business rules.
·  April 2011 – CRS tender to
be released to the public.
·  September 2011 –
Commence CRS build.	

Reform Action	Reform Milestones	Dates	
	Enhancements to Victorian and
Queensland Registers
Victoria and Queensland have undertaken significant work on their registry systems. System enhancements to be implemented to their existing registers to achieve the NWMS and COAG objectives.	·  May 2010 – Complete initial enhancements to Victoria’s current registry system to allow greater communication between existing New South Wales, Victorian and South Australian registry systems.
·  End 2012 – Complete all
enhancements to Victoria’s
current registry system.
·  End 2012 – Complete all enhancements to Queensland’s current registry system.	
	Interim Interoperability between State and Territory Registers
Implement changes to existing MDB state registers to progress efficient interstate trades.	·  May 2010 – Complete initial enhancements for interim interoperability to Victoria’s current registry system.
·  End 2010 – Enhancements
of existing New South Wales and South Australian
registers to be completed, to allow for greater communication between existing New South Wales, Victorian and South Australian registry systems.	
	Interoperability between all State and
Territory Registers
Upon finalisation of the design of the CRS, the Commonwealth will focus on the interoperability of the CRS to facilitate an efficient interstate trade system.	·  Mid 2011 – Commence enhancements to Queensland and Victorian current
registry systems to enable interoperability with the CRS.
·  Sept 2011 – Complete
enhancements to Queensland and Victorian current
registry systems to enable interoperability with the CRS, this occurs in concert with CRS development.	

Reform Action	Reform Milestones	Dates	
Transparency and Efficiency of Basin Water markets - Water Trading Rules in the Murray Darling Basin	
ACCC to provide advice to the MDBA on water trading rules as part of the development of the Basin Plan	March [Q1] 2010	

Compliance and Enforcement

Reform Action	Reform Milestones	Dates	
Establish a National Framework for Compliance and Enforcement Systems for Water Resource Management	Review jurisdictions’ performance against the project milestones specified in Project Plans, through Commonwealth assessment of Annual Progress Reports. State reports are due 15 Oct each year 2011-2015	Annual assessment of state Progress Reports to be completed by Commonwealth within 3 months of state submission	
	Review progress of the implementation of the National
Framework	On completion of Year 4 of the implementation of the National Framework.	
	Sentencing database project commencement	Within 2 months of COAG approval	
	Remote Sensing project commencement	Within 2 months of COAG approval	

Planning and Assurance

Reform Action	Reform Milestones	Dates	
Provision for the management of the water resources of the Murray- Darling Basin	MDBA consultation and development of the Proposed
Basin Plan	During 2010
- 2011	
	Basin Plan tabled in Parliament	2012	

Reform Action	Reform Milestones	Dates	
Establish the National Water Planning Report Card –  subject to COAG	Initial National Water Planning Report Card to provide a transparent summary of the quality of water plans across Australia.  Report to include detailed analysis for a selection of water plans from each state.	December
2011	
	Second biennial National Water Planning Report Card	December
2013	

Reform Action	Reform Milestones	Dates	
Establish an Assessment Framework for sustainable water extraction	Commonwealth undertakes and publishes peer-reviewed risk assessment against the framework for every water plan area, or water system based on available
information	12 months after Assessment Framework Development	
	Second biennial Assessment of sustainable water extraction is published	24 months after publication of the first National Water Resource
Sustainability
Assessment