Submission to the Productivity Commission inquiry into the Register of Foreign Ownership of Water Entitlements

The Minerals Council of Australia (MCA) welcomes the opportunity to provide a submission in response to the Productivity Commission’s issues paper on the Register of Foreign-owned Water Entitlements (the Register).

The Australian Government established the Register under the Register of Foreign Ownership of Water or Agricultural Land Act 2015 (Cth) (the Act). The Act obliges foreign persons to notify the Australian Government of their interests in certain Australian water entitlements and keep it informed of any changes to these interests.

The MCA’s submission on the Register restated the MCA’s longstanding position that water rights issued to resource authority holders outside state planning frameworks should be exempted from the definition of registrable water entitlement to ensure consistency with the agriculture sector and to avoid overstating the level of foreign ownership of water rights.

The MCA also supported maintaining an annual reporting requirement on change of ownership to limit the reporting burden on industry.

Read the full submission: