General comment No. 16: Article 17 (Right to privacy), Thirty-second session (1988) at [3]-[4].

Section 4 of the Water Register Bill amends 'registration trigger time', in relation to a contractual water right held by a person means the latest of the following times: the time the person started to hold the right; the time the person became a foreign person; the start of 1 December 2017.

General Comment No. 18: Non-discrimination, Thirty-seventh session (1989) at [7].

Ibid at [1].

Ibid at [13].

Sydney Morning Herald, 'Foreign ownership register a 'whitewashed travesty': Alan Jones puts Scott Morrison on notice.' 7 September 2016.

The Agricultural Land Register Report can be found at: http://firb.gov.au/files/2016/08/Register_of_foreign_ownership_of_agricultural_land.pdf.

Community concerns have been expressed through correspondence to Members of Parliament and Senators.

Wall Street Journal, 'Australia to Register Its Concern About Foreigners Buying Its Water', March 18 2016. http://www.wsj.com/articles/australia-to-register-its-concern-about-foreigners-buying-its-water-1458275941.

National Water Commission, Factsheet, Water trading in Australia, February 2010. http://archive.nwc.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0004/7843/Factsheet_Water_trading_in_Aus_FINAL_v2.pdf.

The National Water Initiative, agreed between Australian federal, state and territory governments in 2004 provides for the 'unbundling' of water from land. Unbundling has been progressing but is not complete across Australia.

The Australian Bureau of Statistics Agricultural Land and Water Ownership Survey found that as at 30 June 2013 14 per cent of total water entitlements (by volume) were held by foreign investors. This is an increase of 55 per cent (by volume) on the 2010 level of foreign ownership.

Aither, 'Supply-side drivers of water allocation prices in the southern Murray-Darling Basin' 2016; Aither 'Trends and drivers of irrigation' 2016; National Water Commission, 'Australian water markets report 2012-13', 2016, Canberra.

The State of Victoria Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning, Trends in Northern Victorian Water Trade 2001-2015, 24 February 2016. This report notes that concerns about water speculators peak during times of low rainfall resulting in short supply and strong demand of water.

Port Jackson Partners, 'Greener pastures: The global soft commodity opportunity for Australia and New Zealand', 2012, report to ANZ, Sydney.

Any person or entity who owns or operates water service infrastructure for the purpose of delivering water to another person for the primary purpose of being used for irrigation.

For example, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, ACCC Water Monitoring Report 2014-15, Canberra, 2016, reports that private IIOs in the Murray Darling Basin hold 18 per cent, by volume, of the water entitlements issued in that system.

National Farmers Federation, NFF welcomes foreign land register but calls for more detail, media release, Canberra 7 September 2016: http://www.nff.org.au/read/5395/nff-welcomes-foreign-land-register-calls.html.

For the purposes of determining the regulatory costs for the Water Register, the number of affected foreign persons was assumed to be stable across the costing period. While the ABS ALWOS survey indicated an increase in the volume of water that was foreign owned between 2010 and 2013, across the same period the survey indicated a decrease in the number of agricultural businesses that were foreign owned. It would therefore seem reasonable to assume that the number of foreign persons affected by the Water Register was stable.

Based on information provided by the DAWR through publically available information. State-owned IIOs have been excluded from the calculation as they cannot meet the definition of 'foreign person.'

Based on information provided by the DAWR through publically available information.