{"id":"vic:water-commonwealth-powers-act-2008","name":"Water (Commonwealth Powers) Act 2008","slug":"vic-water-commonwealth-powers-act-2008","collection":"act","jurisdiction":"vic","status":"in_force","isInForce":true,"actNumber":null,"makingDate":null,"administeringDepartment":null,"currentVersion":{"id":437214,"registerId":"vic:water-commonwealth-powers-act-2008-seed-1775954184870-7qv9sk","compilationNumber":null,"startDate":"2026-04-12","status":"InForce","reasons":null,"registeredAt":null},"sections":[{"sectionNumber":"1","sectionType":"section","heading":"Water (Commonwealth Powers) Act 2008","content":"Version No. 004\n\n**Water (Commonwealth Powers) Act 2008**\n\n**No. 75 of 2008**\n\nVersion incorporating amendments as at  \n7 June 2012\n\n**table of provisions**\n\n*Section Page*\n\nPart 1—Preliminary 1\n\n1 Purposes 1\n\n2 Commencement 2\n\nPart 2—Reference of Powers 3\n\n3 Definitions 3\n\n4 Reference of matters 6\n\n5 Termination of references 7\n\n6 Effect of termination of amendment reference before initial reference 8\n\n7 Evidence 9\n\nPartS 3–5—*Repealed* 10\n\n8–26 *Repealed* 10\n\nENDNOTES 11\n\n1. General Information 11\n\n2. Table of Amendments 12\n\n3. Explanatory Details 13\n\n**Version No.** **004**\n\n**Water (Commonwealth Powers) Act 2008**\n\n**No. 75 of 2008**\n\nVersion incorporating amendments as at  \n7 June 2012\n\n**The Parliament of Victoria enacts:**\n\nPart 1—Preliminary\n\n\t1 Purposes\n\nThe purposes of this Act are to—\n\n(a) refer certain matters relating to water management to the Commonwealth Parliament for the purposes of section 51(xxxvii) of the Constitution of the Commonwealth; and\n\n(b) amend the **Murray-Darling Basin Act 1993** to provide for the carrying out of an agreement between the Commonwealth, New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland, South Australia and the Australian Capital Territory with regard to the water resources of the Murray-Darling Basin, to repeal all provision in that Act as to any former agreement revoked by that agreement; and\n\n(c) make consequential amendments to the **Snowy Hydro Corporatisation Act 1997** and the **Water Act 1989**; and\n\n(d) to repeal the **Murray-Darling Basin Amendment Act 2007**.\n\n\t2 Commencement\n\ns. 2\n\n(1) Subject to subsection (2), this Act comes into operation on a day or days to be proclaimed.\n\n(2) If a provision of this Act does not come into operation before 1 July 2009 it comes into operation on that day.\n\n__________________\n\nPart 2—Reference of Powers\n\n3 Definitions\n\ns. 3\n\n(1) In this Part—\n\n***amendment reference*** means the reference under section 4(1)(b);\n\n***Basin water resources*** means water resources within or beneath that part of the State that comprises the Murray-Darling Basin (as defined in the terms, or substantially in the terms, set out in the initial referred provisions), but does not include ground water resources of the Great Artesian Basin;\n\n***Commonwealth Water Act*** means the Water Act 2007 of the Commonwealth, as in force from time to time;\n\n***Commonwealth Water Act instrument*** means any instrument (whether or not of a legislative character) that is made or issued under the Commonwealth Water Act;\n\n***critical human water needs*** means the needs for a minimum amount of water, that can only reasonably be provided from Basin water resources, required to meet—\n\n(a) core human consumption requirements in urban and rural areas; and\n\n(b) those non-human consumption requirements that a failure to meet would cause prohibitively high social, economic or national security costs;\n\n***express amendment*** of the Commonwealth Water Act means the direct amendment of the text of Parts 1A, 2A, 4, 4A, 10A and 11A of that Act or of definitions of terms used in those Parts (whether by the insertion, omission, repeal, substitution or relocation of words or matter) by another Commonwealth Act or by an instrument under a Commonwealth Act, but does not include the enactment by a Commonwealth Act of a provision that has or will have substantive effect otherwise than as part of the text of those Parts or those definitions;\n\ns. 3\n\n***initial reference*** means the reference under section 4(1)(a);\n\n***initial referred provisions*** means the text of Parts 1A, 2A, 4, 4A, 10A and 11A set out in the tabled text;\n\n***Murray-Darling Basin Agreement*** means the Murray-Darling Basin Agreement (a copy of which is set out in the tabled text), as amended from time to time by the parties to that Agreement in accordance with the procedure set out in that Agreement;\n\n***reference*** means—\n\n(a) the initial reference; or\n\n(b) the amendment reference;\n\n***referred subject-matters*** means any of the following—\n\n(a) the powers, functions and duties of Commonwealth agencies that—\n\n(i) relate to Basin water resources; and\n\n(ii) are conferred by or under the Murray-Darling Basin Agreement;\n\n(b) the management of Basin water resources to meet critical human water needs;\n\ns. 3\n\n(c) water charging in relation to Basin water resources (other than for urban water supply after the removal of the water from a Basin water resource);\n\n(d) the transformation of entitlements to water from a Basin water resource to enable trading in those water entitlements;\n\n(e) the application, in relation to water resources that are not Basin water resources, of provisions of the Commonwealth Water Act dealing with the subject-matters specified in paragraphs (c) and (d) (being an application of a kind that is authorised by the law of the State);\n\n(f) the transfer of assets, rights and liabilities of the Murray-Darling Basin Commission to the Murray-Darling Basin Authority established by the Commonwealth Water Act, and other transitional matters relating to the replacement of the Commission;\n\n***tabled text*** means the text of the proposed Water Amendment Bill 2008 for a Commonwealth Act as tabled by or on behalf of the Minister for the River Murray in the House of Assembly of South Australia on 23 September 2008.\n\n(2) A reference in this Act to a Part of (or to be inserted in) the Commonwealth Water Act includes a reference to any Schedule to (or to be inserted in) that Act that contains provisions enacted for the purposes of that Part.\n\n\t4 Reference of matters\n\ns. 4\n\n(1) The following matters are referred to the Parliament of the Commonwealth—\n\n(a) the matters to which the initial referred provisions relate, but only to the extent of the making of laws with respect to those matters by including the initial referred provisions in the Commonwealth Water Act in the terms, or substantially in the terms, set out in Schedule 1 of the tabled text;\n\n(b) the referred subject-matters, but only to the extent of the making of laws with respect to any such matter by making express amendments of the Commonwealth Water Act.\n\n(2) The reference of a matter under subsection (1) has effect only—\n\n(a) if and to the extent that the matter is not included in the legislative powers of the Parliament of the Commonwealth (otherwise than by a reference for the purposes of section 51(xxxvii) of the Constitution of the Commonwealth); and\n\n(b) if and to the extent that the matter is included in the legislative powers of the Parliament of the State.\n\n(3) The operation of each paragraph of subsection (1) is not affected by the other paragraph.\n\n(4) For the avoidance of doubt, it is the intention of the Parliament of the State that—\n\n(a) the Commonwealth Water Act may be expressly amended, or have its operation otherwise affected, at any time after the commencement of this Act by provisions of Commonwealth Acts whose operation is based on legislative powers that the Parliament of the Commonwealth has apart from under the references under subsection (1); and\n\n(b) the Commonwealth Water Act may at any time have its operation affected, otherwise than by express amendment, at any time by provisions of Commonwealth Water Act instruments.\n\n(5) Despite any other provision of this section, a reference under this section has effect for a period—\n\n(a) beginning when this section commences; and\n\n(b) ending at the end of the day fixed under section 5 as the day on which the reference is to terminate—\n\nbut no longer.\n\n\t5 Termination of references\n\ns. 5\n\n(1) The Governor in Council may, at any time, by proclamation published in the Government Gazette, fix a day as the day on which—\n\n(a) the references terminate; or\n\n(b) the amendment reference terminates.\n\n(2) The Governor in Council may, by proclamation published in the Government Gazette, revoke a proclamation published under subsection (1), in which case the revoked proclamation is taken (for the purposes of section 4) never to have been published.\n\n(3) A revoking proclamation has effect only if published before the day fixed under subsection (1).\n\n(4) The revocation of a proclamation published under subsection (1) does not prevent publication of a further proclamation under that subsection.\n\n(5) If the amendment reference has terminated, the expression ***the references*** in subsection (1)(a) refers to the initial reference only.\n\n\t6 Effect of termination of amendment reference before initial reference\n\ns. 6\n\n(1) If the amendment reference terminates before the initial reference, the termination of the amendment reference does not affect—\n\n(a) laws that were made under the amendment reference before that termination (whether or not they have come into operation before that termination); or\n\n(b) the continued operation in the State of the Commonwealth Water Act as in operation immediately before that termination or as subsequently amended or affected by—\n\n(i) laws referred to in paragraph (a) that come into operation after that termination; or\n\n(ii) provisions referred to in section 4(4)(a) or (b).\n\n(2) Accordingly, the amendment reference continues to have effect for the purposes of subsection (1) unless the initial reference is terminated.\n\n(3) Subsection (1) does not apply to or in relation to an amendment of the Commonwealth Water Act that is excluded from the operation of this section by the proclamation that terminates the amendment reference.\n\n(4) For the purposes of subsection (1)—\n\n(a) the laws referred to in subsection (1)(a) include Commonwealth Water Act instruments; and\n\n(b) the reference in subsection (1)(b) to the Commonwealth Water Act as in operation immediately before the termination of the amendment reference includes that legislation as affected by Commonwealth Water Act instruments that have come into operation before that time.\n\n7 Evidence\n\ns. 7\n\n(1) A certificate of the Clerk of the House of Assembly of South Australia certifying that a document is an accurate copy of the tabled text, or is an accurate copy of a particular part or of particular provisions of the tabled text, is admissible in evidence in any proceedings and is evidence—\n\n(a) of the matter certified; and\n\n(b) that the text of the proposed Commonwealth Bill was tabled in the House of Assembly of South Australia as referred to in the definition of tabled text in section 3.\n\n(2) Subsection (1) does not affect any other way in which the tabling or content of the tabled text, or the accuracy of a copy of the tabled text or of a part or provisions of the tabled text, may be established.\n\ns. 7\n\n__________________\n\nPt 3 (Heading and ss 8–20) repealed by No. 75/2008 s. 26.\n\n* * * * *\n\nPt 4 (Heading and ss 21–25) repealed by No. 75/2008 s. 26.\n\n* * * * *\n\nPt 5 (Heading and s. 26) repealed by No. 75/2008 s. 26.\n\n* * * * *\n\n\n\nENDNOTES\n\n1. General Information\n\n\n *Minister's second reading speech—*\n\n *Legislative Assembly: 9 October 2008*\n\n *Legislative Council: 29 October 2008*\n\nEndnotes\n\nThe long title for the Bill for this Act was \"A Bill for an Act to refer certain matters relating to water management to the Commonwealth Parliament for the purposes of section 51(xxxvii) of the Constitution of the Commonwealth and to amend the **Murray-Darling Basin Act 1993** to provide for the carrying out of an agreement between the Commonwealth, New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland, South Australia and the Australian Capital Territory with regard to the water resources of the Murray-Darling Basin, to repeal all provision in that Act as to any former agreement revoked by that agreement, to make consequential amendments to the **Snowy Hydro Corporatisation Act 1997** and the **Water Act 1989** to repeal the **Murray-Darling Basin Amendment Act 2007** and for other purposes.\"\n\nThe **Water (Commonwealth Powers) Act 2008** was assented to on 4 December 2008 and came into operation as follows:\n\nSections 1–7 on 4 December 2008: Special Gazette (No. 336) 4 December 2008 page 1; sections 8–26 on 15 December 2008: Special Gazette (No. 358) 11 December 2008 page 1.\n\n1. Table of Amendments\n\n\nEndnotes\n\nThis Version incorporates amendments made to the **Water (Commonwealth Powers) Act 2008** by Acts and subordinate instruments.\n\n–––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––\n\n**Water (Commonwealth Powers) Act 2008, No. 75/2008**\n\n| Assent Date: | 4.12.08 |\n| --- | --- |\n| Commencement Date: | S. 26 on 15.12.09: s. 26 |\n| Current State: | This information relates only to the provision/s amending the **Water (Commonwealth Powers) Act 2008** |\n\n\n–––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––\n\n1. Explanatory Details\n\n\nEndnotes\n\nNo entries at date of publication.","sortOrder":0}],"analysis":{"flash_summary":{"complexity_score":7,"scope_assessment":{"changed":false,"description":"The Act's core scope — to refer specified Basin water matters to the Commonwealth and to implement the Basin agreement via Commonwealth law — remains as stated in its purposes (s.1) and referral provisions (s.4). The Act expressly limits the extent of the referral (see s.4(2)) and provides savings and transitional rules if amendment references end (s.6), but contains no provision in the text supplied that expands the original referral scope beyond those stated purposes."},"complexity_factors":["Cross‑jurisdictional referral mechanism that integrates State material into Commonwealth law (see s.1 purposes; s.4(1)(a); s.3 definition of 'tabled text').","Extensive defined terms that delimit what is referred (for example 'referred subject‑matters', 'initial reference', 'amendment reference') increasing interpretive load (s.3).","Dual reference structure: separate 'initial reference' and 'amendment reference' with different scopes and effects (s.4(1)(a),(b); s.3 definitions).","Conditional and temporary operation: reference takes effect only where not otherwise within Commonwealth power and may be terminated by Governor in Council proclamations (s.4(2); s.4(5); s.5).","Transitional and savings complexity preserving Commonwealth laws and instruments made under a terminated amendment reference until initial reference ends (s.6(1)–(4)).","Permits effect of Commonwealth Water Act instruments and other Commonwealth Acts on operation at any time, broadening potential sources of legal impact (s.4(4); s.6(1)(a),(b)).","Administrative discretion concentrated in executive proclamation powers (termination/revocation) which interact with timing and legal effect (s.5).","Evidence rule relying on a certified copy of the tabled Commonwealth Bill creates a formal proof mechanism for legislative text (s.7).","Consequential amendments and repeals to other statutes and repealed Parts add cross‑statute drafting and application complexity (s.1(b)–(d); Endnotes)."],"plain_english_summary":"This Act authorises Victoria to refer specified Murray–Darling Basin water‑management matters to the Commonwealth under section 51(xxxvii) of the Constitution and to amend state laws so the Commonwealth Water Act and the inter‑jurisdictional Basin agreement can operate. It shifts legal decision‑making on defined Basin water matters to Commonwealth law, affects state agencies, water entitlement holders and users, and sets the mechanics for how long the referral lasts, how it can be ended, and how transitional arrangements and evidence of the proposed Commonwealth text operate."},"issue_detection":{"absurdities":[],"contradictions":[]},"flash_summary_failed":{"failed":true,"reason":"A positive credit balance is required for all requests, including BYOK, so fallback providers remain available. Add credits at https://vercel.com/d?to=%2F%5Bteam%5D%2F%7E%2Fai%3Fmodal%3Dtop-up to continue.","source":"analysis-cron"},"kimi_summary":{"content_quality":"ok","complexity_score":4,"scope_assessment":{"changed":false,"description":"The legislation appears to have maintained its original scope. It was designed as a referral mechanism for the Murray-Darling Basin water management reforms, and the current version (incorporating amendments to 2012) continues to serve that specific purpose. The repeal of Parts 3-5 was part of the original legislative design (section 26 repealed the temporary provisions), not a later expansion or contraction of scope. The Act remains focused on its core purpose: enabling Commonwealth legislation through state referral."},"complexity_factors":["14 defined terms in section 3, several with nested definitions (e.g., 'critical human water needs' has sub-paragraphs)","Dual reference structure (initial vs amendment reference) with interdependent termination provisions","Conditional operation clauses in section 4(2) limiting when references have effect","Cross-references to external documents: the 'tabled text' of a South Australian parliamentary bill, the Murray-Darling Basin Agreement, and the Commonwealth Water Act 2007","Constitutional law concepts (section 51(xxxvii) referral) requiring understanding of federal-state power distribution","Self-referential repeal of Parts 3-5 (sections 8-26 repealed by section 26 itself)","Temporal limitations and termination mechanics in sections 5-6 with preservation clauses for existing laws"],"plain_english_summary":"Victoria has referred key Murray–Darling Basin water powers to the Commonwealth so the federal government can make national laws on basin water management, critical human water needs, water pricing (non-urban), trading entitlements, and asset transfers to a federal authority. \n\nThis enables a unified Basin Plan affecting farmers, irrigators, water traders and communities by shifting allocation and management decisions across state borders—using a constitutional referral to allow federal regulation that wouldn’t otherwise be possible."}},"importantCases":[],"_links":{"self":"/api/acts/vic-water-commonwealth-powers-act-2008","history":"/api/acts/vic-water-commonwealth-powers-act-2008/history","analysis":"/api/acts/vic-water-commonwealth-powers-act-2008/analysis","conflicts":"/api/acts/vic-water-commonwealth-powers-act-2008/conflicts","importantCases":"/api/acts/vic-water-commonwealth-powers-act-2008/important-cases","documents":"/api/acts/vic-water-commonwealth-powers-act-2008/documents"}}