Water Industry Competition Act 2006

The holder of an operator licence may apply to IPART to be registered as the registered operator for a specified scheme in the place of another registered operator if the water industry infrastructure is of a class that is authorised to be operated under the licence.

IPART may grant or refuse the application.

In determining an application, IPART must have regard to the following—

the public interest,

whether disciplinary action against the licensee is pending or, as a result of disciplinary action against the licensee, the licensee is prohibited from being registered as the registered operator under a further scheme approval,

whether, in the reasonable suspicion of IPART, a statutory default within the meaning of Part 2, Division 6 has occurred within 2 years before the application was made and the applicant, or a related corporation of the applicant, is the alleged defaulter,

whether the applicant, or a related corporation of the applicant, has failed to provide a service, or a connection to infrastructure, after granting a certificate of compliance relating to the service or infrastructure,

whether disciplinary action against the existing registered operator is pending or, as a result of disciplinary action against the existing registered operator, the existing registered operator is prohibited from being registered as the registered operator under a scheme approval,

whether, in the reasonable suspicion of IPART, a statutory default within the meaning of Part 2, Division 6 has occurred within 2 years before the application was made and the existing registered operator, or a related corporation of the existing registered operator, is the alleged defaulter,

whether the existing registered operator, or a related corporation of the existing registered operator, has failed to provide a service, or a connection to infrastructure, after granting a certificate of compliance relating to the service or infrastructure.

Disciplinary action is pending from the time when notice is given to a person requiring the person to show cause why disciplinary action should not be taken against the person until—

disciplinary action is taken against the person, or

the decision is made that disciplinary action will not be taken against the person.

IPART must not grant an application under this section if the existing registered operator—

satisfies IPART that it owns all the water industry infrastructure comprising the scheme to which the scheme approval relates, other than reticulation pipelines, and

does not consent to the substitution.

IPART must not grant an application under this section if the scheme to which the scheme approval relates was constructed and in operation before the substitution of Part 2 by the Water Industry Competition Amendment Act 2021.