The Victorian government is committed to increasing water market transparency, including about the practices of water brokers. This includes maintaining a current listing of the names of water brokers that meet government standards required for using Victoria’s online Broker Portal or API (the portal).
The Department of Energy, Environment and Climate Action (DEECA) audits water broker firms that use the portal to monitor broker compliance with their portal access obligations.
This Water Broker Status Report (below) lists broker firms that were included in DEECA’s latest annual broker audit and brokers that have started using the portal after the last audit period. It shows the portal access status and insurance cover of each of these brokers. This report will be updated after each annual audit of water brokers and as needed throughout the year.
Notes:
^ Last updated July 2023
*At least $5M of professional indemnity insurance is a mandatory requirement for any broker entering an agreement with DEECA to use the Victorian Broker Portal. This requirement is checked when a broker signs up and through the broker audit process. In the intervening periods, it is possible for a broker firm to be non-compliant with this requirement without the Department’s knowledge.
Since 2013–14, DEECA has conducted an annual audit of water brokers that use the Victorian Broker Portal or Broker API. According to the Access Agreement signed by each water broker, the audit is a condition of ongoing access to these facilities.
As part of the audit, DEECA uses an independent auditor which assesses broker firms for compliance with the Access Agreement. The audit gives a degree of broker regulation and is significant in that it covers most of the allocation trades in northern Victoria.
To date, a summary of the key findings of the audit has been made public each year on the Victorian Water Register website. These public summary reports are available below.