New South Wales Consolidated Regulations

WATER SHARING PLAN FOR THE NEW SOUTH WALES MURRAY AND LOWER DARLING REGULATED RIVERS WATER SOURCES 2003 - REG 53

53 Rules for conversion of access licence category

(1) This clause relates to dealings under section 71O of the Act.

(2) Conversion of an access licence of one category to an access licence of another category is prohibited except as provided for under this clause.

(3) On application of the access licence holder, the Minister may cancel a regulated river (general security) access licence in the Murray Water Source, and issue a regulated river (high security) access licence in the Murray Water Source, subject to:

(a) the application of a conversion factor established by the Minister and published in an Order made under section 71Z of the Act that protects environmental water, domestic and stock rights, native title rights and the reliability of supply to all other access licences in the Murray Water Source, and

(b) the volume of water in the regulated river (general security) access licence water allocation account being equal to or greater than its share component volume.

Note: The volume of water in the regulated river (general security) access licence water allocation account which is in excess of the share component volume of the new regulated river (high security) access licence will not be credited to the new regulated river (high security) access licence account.

(4) On application of the access licence holder, the Minister may cancel a regulated river (high security) access licence in the Murray Water Source, and issue a regulated river (general security) access licence in the Murray Water Source, subject to:

(a) the application of a conversion factor equal to one divided by the conversion factor established in subclause (3), and

(b) the total volume of regulated river (general security) access licence share components in the Murray Water Source not increasing above the total volume of regulated river (general security) access licence share components in the water source at the time of commencement of Part 2 of Chapter 3 of the Act.

Note: This would allow conversion of a regulated river (high security) access licence to a regulated river (general security) access licence only if there had been a corresponding or larger volume of regulated river (general security) access licence share component converted to regulated river (high security) access licence in the water source.

(5) On application of the licence holder, the Minister may cancel a regulated river (conveyance) access licence in the Murray Water Source and issue a regulated river (general security) access licence in the Murray Water Source subject to:

(a) the application of a conversion factor established by the Minister that protects the reliability of supply to existing regulated river (general security) access licences, and

(b) the total volume of regulated river (general security) access licence share components in the water source not increasing above the total volume of regulated river (general security) access licence share components in the water source at the time of commencement of Part 2 of Chapter 3 of the Act.

(6) On application of the licence holder, the Minister may cancel a regulated river (conveyance) access licence in the Murray Water Source and issue a regulated river (high security) access licence in the Murray Water Source subject to:

(a) the application of a conversion factor established by the Minister that protects the reliability of supply to regulated river (general security) access licences, and

(b) the volume of water in the regulated river (conveyance) access licence water allocation account being equal to or greater than its share component volume.

(7) On application of the access licence holder, the Minister may cancel a domestic and stock access licence and issue a domestic and stock (domestic only) access licence and a domestic and stock (stock only) access licence, subject to:

(a) the sum of the share component volumes of the two new access licences being equal to the share component volume of the cancelled access licence, and

(b) the share component volume of the new domestic and stock (domestic only) access licence being able to meet the needs of domestic consumption as defined in section 52 of the Act.

(8) On application of the access licence holder, the Minister may cancel a domestic and stock (stock only) access licence and issue a regulated river (high security) access licence. The number of unit shares in the regulated river (high security) access licence share component shall be equal to the number of megalitres per year in the share component of the cancelled domestic and stock (stock only) access licence.