ABSTRACT
In Australia, the right to manage and allocate water is defined as a public good, and all governments use a licensing system to allocate water. While there is a plethora of detail, as a general rule all licenses in an irrigation area are defined in the same way. Moreover, as Australia has an extremely variable climate, in some areas, two types of license exist – “high-security” and “general-security” licenses. In times of scarcity, allocations are made first to high-security licenses, then any water that is left over is allocated to general-security licenses.
