Ground Water (Qualco-Sunlands) Control Act 2000

The owner of an irrigated property who is a member of the Trust may, in his or her annual irrigation declaration, apply to the Trust for an increase in the risk management allocation attached to the whole or part of his or her irrigated land or for a risk management allocation to be attached to other land that has been classified under section 33.

An owner of land that has been classified under section 33 but who is not a member of the Trust may apply in writing to the Trust to be granted a risk management allocation in relation to the land.

An application under subsection (1) or

—

cannot (unless the regulations provide otherwise) be made in respect of the category of land under this Act having the highest risk;

may be made in respect of land of any other category;

in respect of an irrigated property, may, subject to paragraph (a), be made in respect of any part of the land comprising the property.

An application must be justified by demonstrating—

—

the need to use more water to irrigate existing plants;

the need to irrigate proposed new planting to be undertaken on land that is suitable for the purpose; and

that the quantity of the risk management allocation requested is not excessive when the species of plants and the area involved are taken into account.

An application must include such information as is required by the regulations and such further information as is required by the

The Trust may refuse an application if the applicant fails to convince the Trust that his or her application is justified under subsection (4).

If the application is refused, the applicant may apply to the

Subject to subsections (9) and

, those persons who have applied successfully in accordance with this section for an increase in their risk management allocation or for a new allocation are entitled to have the excess risk management capacity of the Scheme divided equally between them (regardless of any differences in the amounts they have applied for) until their respective applications are satisfied.

An applicant whose application is only partially satisfied—

is entitled to have it satisfied in a subsequent year or years before any new applications are satisfied; but

is not entitled to make a further application until the previous application is satisfied or is withdrawn.

Where—

the capacity of the Scheme infrastructure is increased pursuant to an agreement between the Minister and the Trust under section 19(4); and

it is a term of the agreement that the resulting increase in the capacity of the Scheme is to be divided between the irrigated properties to which a water licence was applicable on 10 April 2000 but to which a risk management allocation has never previously been attached, the owner of an irrigated property referred to in paragraph (b) may apply to the Trust for a risk management allocation proportional to, but not exceeding, the risk management allocation appearing opposite the number of the water licence applicable to that property in Schedule