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FACT SHEET
WATER AND SEWERAGE LEGISLATION (MISCELLANEOUS AMENDMENTS)
BILL 2009
� In progressing the detailed implementation of water and sewerage reform, it
has become evident that a small number of issues would require further heads
of power and some additional consequential and transitional amendments.
This has led to the drafting of the Water and Sewerage (Miscellaneous
Amendments) Bill 2009.
� The Bill is split into a number of parts. Firstly, the Bill amends the Water and
Sewerage Industry Amendment Act 2008 to require a person to seek the new
water and sewerage corporations' consent for building or plumbing works
which impact on the corporations' infrastructure or service delivery.
� The Bill includes the ability for corporations to limit the number of consent
applications it assesses by allowing it to develop a policy which exempts
certain types of building and plumbing work from requiring the corporation's
consent in circumstances where the works are not likely to have a detrimental
effect on the corporations' infrastructure or service delivery. This will provide
the corporations with the ability to significantly reduce the number of consent
applications it has to assess and to focus its efforts on those applications of
relevance to its operations.
� The Bill also makes a small number of consequential amendments to existing
legislation. These changes relate to the Building Act 2000, the Local
Government (Building and Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1993 and the Water
Management Act 1999.
� To enable this new interface, amendment is required to the Building Act.
While retaining the existing permit approval function for councils as permit
authorities, the permit approval process is varied only so as to accommodate
the corporations' views on their ability to supply water and sewerage services
to relevant permit applications.
� These changes will not typically vary the current timelines faced by
developers.
� A minor amendment to the Local Government (Building and Miscellaneous
Provisions) Act is also required to ensure that in the future a corporation may
advise a council it is unable to service a certain block and the council can
continue to require that this information be added to the plan of subdivision for
that block. This amendment will maintain an important discovery mechanism
for property buyers, as plans of subdivision are added to the finalised title for a
block.
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� The Bill also ensures that water licences to be transferred to the new
corporations are deemed to have been appropriately granted. This
overcomes an issue recently discovered by the Department of Primary
Industries and Water regarding the functioning of the savings provisions in the
Water Management Act which required addressing.
� The Bill also proposes an amendment to the Water and Sewerage
Corporations Act 2008 to improve the process for the transfer of interests in
part, or parts, of land under that Act.
� This amendment will enable the transfer of appropriately sized individual land
holdings to the new water and sewerage corporations that reflect the agreed
position between councils and the new water and sewerage corporations.
Without this amendment, councils will only be able to transfer entire land
holdings and not just the parts specifically involved in water and sewerage
activities.
� The last part of the Bill provides for a number of transitional provisions. These
provisions deal largely with existing planning, building and plumbing permit
applications that have entered the system, but which as of 1 July 2009 are yet
to be processed. Provisions have been drafted to ensure the new corporations
are adequately consulted on such applications and that the corporations and
permit holders honour already approved permit and agreement conditions
relating to water and sewerage.