Make Good Agreement (MGA) Templates

GasFields Commission Queensland has developed Make Good Agreement (MGA) templates for use by water bore owners and industry. The MGA templates are the result of comprehensive consultation with relevant agriculture and gas industry peak bodies and government regulators.

The templates are intended to be used as a starting point for negotiations between a tenure holder and a bore owner and create common ground from which an MGA can be drawn up.

MGA Templates:

1. No Make Good Measures
2. Monitoring
3. Compensation
4. New Bore(s)

Responsible tenure holders are required to carry out bore assessments to determine if a water bore has, or is likely to have, an “impaired capacity” as a result of gas development. An MGA is then required for all water bores that have undergone a bore assessment – even if it is determined the bore is never likely to be “impaired”.

The agreed make good measures include any of three key outcomes:

• ensure the bore owner has access to a reasonable quantity and quality of water for the bore’s authorised use or purpose, including, for example, bore works such as lowering the pump or deepening the bore, or installing a new bore;
• carry out a plan to monitor the bore, including, for example, triggers for undertaking further bore assessments;
• give the bore owner monetary or non-monetary compensation for the bore’s impaired capacity.

The Commission’s MGA templates come with Guidance Notes to assist bore owner’s understanding of the make good process.

The below MGA Decision Table below can be used as a guide to determine which make good agreement template to use based on the outcome of the bore assessment.