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Master Class to highlight water market's future

17 March 2005

An increase in funding for water saving projects and substantial progress towards reforms that recognise the true value of water is possible now that four states have agreed to rejoin the National Water Initiative (NWI), according to Allens Arthur Robinson partner Grant Anderson.

Barriers to trading water entitlements both within and between states will be progressively removed or reduced, resulting in more efficient trading in water entitlements across jurisdictions, said Mr Anderson, an energy, resources and infrastructure partner with specialist knowledge in water law.

Important projects such as the Wimmera-Mallee pipeline, which will replace around 17,500 kilometres of open channels, will now also go ahead, as the Commonwealth Government has set aside funding that it will make available under the NWI and other initiatives.

Mr Anderson is one of a panel of Allens Arthur Robinson experts who will speak about water and the law at an Australian Water Association Water Industry "Master Class", to be held at AAR's Sydney offices on 17 and 18 March.

Topics to be covered at the "Master Class", which is held for senior industry managers in both the public and private sector, include water rights and water trading, water infrastructure funding and management, dispute resolution and pollution issues.

Mr Anderson said the Victorian Government had also foreshadowed substantial changes to its water management legislation that will significantly free up irrigators and others to trade in water entitlements.

"This will allow irrigators to put together a portfolio of different water entitlements with, for example, different reliabilities so that they can more closely match the risk profile of their operations," he said.

"It will also enable water users to earn a return on water rights that they don't immediately require by leasing them out while still retaining them as security for the longer term."

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Notes for editors.

Allens Arthur Robinson was Best Large Professional Services Firm of the Year and Best Large Law Firm in the 2006 BRW-St.George Client Choice awards, and the Chambers and Partners 2005 Australasian Law Firm of the Year. AAR has been awarded an EOWA Employer of Choice for Women citation by the Federal Government's Equal Opportunity for Women in the Workplace Agency (EOWA). Allens Arthur Robinson offers one of the most comprehensive legal networks in Australia and Asia with staff based in 14 cities and eight countries across the region. It was founded in 1822.