Irrigators to have a say on carryover rules under Liberal Nationals

State Liberal Member for Eildon Cindy McLeish MP has announced that an elected Liberal government will review carryover water in northern Victoria to make sure the rules are working in the best interests of water users.

“A Liberal Government will review carryover rules to make sure we have system that’s fair and equitable for our irrigators, the environment and other water users.” “More than a decade since carryover rules were introduced, it’s time stakeholders get a chance to have their say,” Ms McLeish said.

Ms McLeish said the Liberals would look into whether current carryover rules on the Goulburn, Murray and Campaspe systems could better reflect the way water use, storage and trade has changed in the past decade.

Carryover rules allow water entitlement holders to take unused water allocations from one season into the next, with the carryover water available for their own use or to trade.

“Carryover was introduced at the height of the drought in 2007 to help manage risk. Since then the way we use, trade and store water has changed a lot and we need to make sure the rules accurately reflect that change,” Ms McLeish said.

The proposed review will examine whether carryover has increased the frequency of spills from northern Victoria’s water storages and, if so, seek to quantify what benefit that has to the environment.

It will also seek to identify whether carryover has reduced entitlement allocations of either high or low reliability water through increased spills. The committee will include irrigator representation.