The Victorian government is committed to increasing water market transparency. This commitment includes making available new water market information and improved insights into the market.
During the water market transparency options paper consultation, we heard that there was a need for increased transparency of allocation trades, how much water is available and better information on inter-valley trading.
Today, three new dashboards have been released on the Victorian Water Register website to increase transparency on:
The new allocation trades dashboard provides insights on all approved commercial allocation trades in a table and chart format. The table provides information on the proportion of allocation trades completed by private entities, water authorities and the environment. The chart provides the ability to view all allocation trades to easily observe the variation in price and see some details about individual trades by hovering over the trade on the chart.
Available water by owner type information is presently available on this website at a water system level, like the Goulburn or Murray. The new dashboard provides additional flexibility to view the available water by owner type in each trading zone . This was information that we heard the market needed especially in the Victorian Murray system. The availability of information on how much water is available below the Barmah Choke will greatly assist market participants who use water below the Choke in making decisions on the potential to purchase water from other Victorian account holders below the Choke.
The new dashboard on inter-valley trade limits and trade opportunities builds on the information already available on trade opportunities provided by the ‘where can I trade’ application and the water market watch mobile application. The dashboard provides detailed information on inter-valley trade opportunities in the current year and insights on how these trade opportunities have changed over time and the factors that have influenced these trade opportunities. These insights will assist market participants with an interest in the long term trends to understand how they have changed and what the factors that have influenced the inter-valley trade limits and trade opportunities.
The Victorian government is committed to improving the availability of water market information and increasing transparency. A survey is currently being conducted on Engage Victoria to continue to seek the views of the community on full market transparency. This will assist in providing guidance on the information and insights that are of value. Later this year further information and insights will be released on who owns two percent or more of entitlement in water systems and on allocation accounts that trade more than twenty times a year.