Murray-Darling Basin water markets inquiry 2019-21

Water market literature review and empirical analysis, Final Report May 2020, prepared for the ACCC by Professor Sarah Ann Wheeler, Associate Professor Alec Zuo, Dr Ying Xu, Dr Juliane Haensch and Constantin Seidl from the Centre for Global Food and Resources at the University of Adelaide. The report includes a literature review summarising existing literature on Murray-Darling Basin (Basin) water markets, and quantitative analysis of data collected through various surveys of irrigators across the MDB Basin from 1998 to 2015. These surveys, among other things, asked irrigators about their water ownership, water trading and farm management behaviours, and included a number of attitudinal questions.

Understanding participation in water trading by irrigators in the Murray-Darling Basin, Final Report July 2020, prepared for the ACCC by Associate Professor Jacki Schirmer and Dominic Peel from the Centre for Applied Water Science and the Health Research Institute at the University of Canberra. The report includes quantitative analysis of data collected through the 2015, 2016 and 2018 Regional Wellbeing Survey. The surveys, among other things, asked Basin irrigators about their water use, water ownership, water trading, and farm management behaviours, as well as irrigators’ attitudes to the process of trading water, their confidence in water markets and water market rules, and their views on the security of their permanent water rights.

Water market architecture: Issues & options: Input into ACCC market architecture assessment prepared for the ACCC by Frontier Economics.

The report examined whether the design of Southern Connected Basin water markets was constraining or distorting trade. It considered if a ‘gap’ existed between the trade and operational rules and the hydrological realities of the system and, if so, how closing such a gap could improve the operations, transparency, competitiveness or efficiency of Southern Connected Basin water markets.

The report was informed by consultation and drew on data and information collected and supplied by the ACCC. The issues identified related primarily to interregional trade, delivery arrangements, carryover and individual storage arrangements and governance.