8Provision where commercial arrangements cannot be agreed

8 Provision where commercial arrangements cannot be agreed

(1)  Subject to subsection (2) , where a council and a third-party owner of infrastructure or operator of stormwater services cannot reach agreement on the contract details for the provision of stormwater services, either party may refer the matter to an arbitrator to be appointed in accordance with the Commercial Arbitration Act 2011 .

(2)  A matter may be referred to an arbitrator only after at least one of the following conditions has been satisfied:

(a) at least 6 months have passed since the service of the notice under section 7 and in the opinion of one or both parties it is unlikely a resolution will be quickly reached;

(b) in the opinion of the council involved, the third-party provider of stormwater services is unreasonably withholding consent for the council to use the third-party's infrastructure.

(3)  For the purposes of subsection (1), an arbitrator has, in addition to the powers conferred by the Commercial Arbitration Act 2011 , the power to determine –

(a) the conditions relating to the supply of stormwater services; and

(b) a price for those services and transition price policies to minimise price shocks; and

(c) any performance indicators to be implemented and modified over time; and

(d) the period over which the commercial agreement applies; and

(e) contract dispute resolution processes.

(4)  Before making a determination under subsection (3) , the arbitrator is to seek advice from –

(a) the Department; and

(b) [Section 8 Subsection (4) amended by No. 13 of 2015, s. 85, Applied:01 Jul 2015] the Tasmanian Economic Regulator appointed under section 9 of the Economic Regulator Act 2009 ; and