1 / 19

Australian Water Accounting Standards Sean Hanley RMIT: Accounting for Sustainability 27 May 2011

Australian Water Accounting Standards Sean Hanley RMIT: Accounting for Sustainability 27 May 2011. Water accounting is coming. Phases of development in water management. Development Phase late 1880s to the late 1970s Management Phase 1980 to 2000 Adjustment Phase

elizabethjoseph
Download Presentation

Australian Water Accounting Standards Sean Hanley RMIT: Accounting for Sustainability 27 May 2011

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. Australian Water Accounting Standards Sean Hanley RMIT: Accounting for Sustainability 27 May 2011

  2. Water accounting is coming

  3. Phases of development in water management • Development Phase • late 1880s to the late 1970s • Management Phase • 1980 to 2000 • Adjustment Phase • 2000 to present (and ongoing)

  4. The adjustment phase • 2000s Adjustment for Sustainability • Improving environmental flows • Snowy River • River Murray first step water recovery • Water savings • Farm dams controls • Expanded trading • Tariff reform • Asset/service reconfiguration and modernisation • National Water Initiative

  5. NWI requirements of water accounting The NWI seeks: water accounting able to meet the information needs of different water systems in respect to planning, monitoring, trading, environmental management and on-farm management. NWI Action requires: accounting system standards, particularly where jurisdictions share resources and where water markets are operating standardised reporting formats to enable ready comparison of water use, compliance against entitlements and trading information benchmarking of water accounting systems on a national scale. A new approach to water resources reporting

  6. Development of water accounting

  7. Development of water accounting (continued)

  8. New learning from old… FINANCIAL REPORTINGWATER ACCOUNTING Unregulated practice diversity Unregulated practice diversity National standards diversity Conceptual Framework International standards Standard Principles Conceptual Framework

  9. Publications

  10. What is water accounting? A systematic process of identifying, recognising, quantifying, reporting, assuring and publishing information about water, the rights or other claims to that water and obligations against that water

  11. A standardised approach to reporting • AWAS is for the preparation and presentation of a General Purpose Water Accounting Report (GPWAR) • GPWAR directed towards the common information needs of a wide range of users • GPWAR prepared on the basis of the AWAS will deliver consistent, comparable, auditable reports for users who are unable to command this information themselves and provide the level of investment confidence being sought.

  12. Objective A general purpose water accounting report shall provide information to users of that report that will be useful in: • making and evaluating decisions about the allocation of resources • understanding and evaluating the accountability of managers, management groups or governing bodies of the water report entity for the water assets and water liabilities of the water report entity. Better information leads to better decisions

  13. Who or what reports? • Water Entity  • A physical entity, an organisation or individual, which: • holds or transfers water, • holds or transfers other direct or indirect claims to water; or • has inflows and/or outflows of water; or • has responsibilities relating to water management • Water Report Entity • A water entity in respect of which it is reasonable to expect the existence of users who depend on general purpose water accounting reports for information about water, or rights or other claims to water, which shall be useful to them for making & evaluating decisions about allocation of resources.

  14. Water assets and water liabilities • Water asset • Water, or the rights or other claims to water, which the water report entity either holds, or for which the water report entity has management responsibilities, and from which an individual or organisation that is a water report entity, or a group of stakeholders of a physical water report entity, derives future benefits • Water liability • A present obligation of the water report entity, the discharge of which is expected to result in a decrease in the water report entity’s water assets or an increase in another water liability

  15. What is in a GPWAR? • Contextual Statement • Accountability Statement • Assurance Statement • Statement of Water Assets and Water Liabilities • Statement of Changes in Water Assets and Water Liabilities • Statement of Physical Flows • Note Disclosures

  16. Quantification a challenge

  17. So, who benefits?

  18. Next steps in water accounting • Transition from ED AWAS 1 to AWAS 1 • Assurance standard (AWAS 2) under development in partnership with AUASB • Effects analysis • Communication with water, accounting and assurance industries • Capacity-building • International developments

  19. For more on water accounting… visit www.bom.gov.au/water/wasb Sean Hanley 03 8638 8252s.hanley@bom.gov.au

More Related