- within Energy and Natural Resources, Food, Drugs, Healthcare, Life Sciences and Antitrust/Competition Law topic(s)
- with Senior Company Executives, HR and Finance and Tax Executives
- with readers working within the Accounting & Consultancy, Consumer Industries and Metals & Mining industries
The Queensland Government announced yesterday that it will merge Seqwater, LinkWater and the SEQ Water Grid Manager, and will abolish the Queensland Water Commission. While the details of this proposal and its implications are still being worked through (including what will replace these entities), this is likely to impact significantly on major customers, suppliers and contractors who are currently working, or planning to undertake work with any of these affected entities. The reforms are due to be implemented by the end of this year.
What does this mean for you?
If you are currently a customer, contractor or supplier to any of the affected entities, you should now:
- Contracts: Identify all contracts you may have
with an affected entity and any assets to which they relate. Review
all such contracts with a specific focus on the following
provisions:
- assignment, novation and change of control;
- indemnity;
- insurance;
- security;
- personal property security/security interest issues; and
- termination.
- Transitional Arrangements: Work out whether your business needs to implement any transitional arrangements in order to cope with the reform. What would these arrangements be and how they might they be implemented? Will there be any additional costs?
- Fall back: Identify whether there would be any longer term disruption to your business as a result of the proposed reforms. Will any critical resource or service be interrupted, varied or withdrawn? In what ways can your commercial arrangements be varied?
- Information: Ensure that you have access to a source of accurate up to date information in relation to the proposed reforms. There is little information surrounding the merger's exact timeline, but with a six month timeframe, changes are likely to happen on short notice.
The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.
