The ACCC has released its ninth annual report under the Water Act 2007(Cth). The report provides information on the state of the rural water sector in the Murray–Darling Basin (MDB) for the 2017–18 financial year. It covers:

• an overview of climatic conditions, water allocations and other industry matters such as the expansion of perennial crops and energy input costs
• a summary of significant developments in MDB policy, legislation and governance over 2017 to 2019
• tradeable water rights activity for off-river infrastructure operator networks, and the associated charges applied
• transformation and termination activity reported by irrigation infrastructure operators
• changes in regulated water charges and trends across time, location, network type and Basin state for both on and off-river infrastructure operators
• spending on water planning and management (WPM) activities and the revenue from WPM charges reported by Basin states
• compliance with the water charge and water market rules enforced by the ACCC.