{"id":4920,"date":"2020-01-21T04:10:58","date_gmt":"2020-01-21T04:10:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/?p=4920"},"modified":"2020-01-21T04:10:58","modified_gmt":"2020-01-21T04:10:58","slug":"dodgy-water-deals-done-at-double-the-price-highlight-need-for-royal-commission","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/2020\/01\/21\/dodgy-water-deals-done-at-double-the-price-highlight-need-for-royal-commission\/","title":{"rendered":"Dodgy water deals done at double the price highlight need for Royal Commission"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Australia Institute\u00a0analysis<\/a>\u00a0released today showing the Federal Government paid exorbitant prices for water rights to a company linked to Minister Angus Taylor is further evidence of the need for a Royal Commission into the Murray-Darling Basin Plan, the Greens say.
\nIn April 2018, Greens Spokesperson for Water Senator Sarah Hanson-Young, referred allegations that the Department of Agriculture significantly overpaid vendors for water in the Warrego catchment, Tandou and the Condamine-Balonne Valley to the Auditor-General for investigation.\u00a0In April last year, Senator Hanson-Young asked the Auditor-General to audit all water purchases signed off by former Water Minister Barnaby Joyce.
\nSenator Hanson-Young said she would be drawing the Auditor-General\u2019s attention to the latest documents showing the Department had rejected offers made by Eastern Australia Agriculture for water rights in the Condamine-Balonne valley many times on the basis they were \u2018not value for money\u2019 before ultimately paying almost double the price EAA had offered.
\n\u201cThis is further proof these were dodgy deals and exactly why I referred the procurement of water rights to the Auditor-General,\u201d she said.
\n“The Federal Government has refused to release independent valuations of water rights, companies involved are allegedly linked to Energy Minister Angus Taylor, and taxpayers footed an $80m bill for water that\u2019s never been seen.\u00a0Then-Water Minister Barnaby Joyce has some explaining to do, the\u00a0whole thing stinks.
\n\u201cThe Murray-Darling Basin has been riddled with dodgy accounting, mismanagement, and out-right water theft, and it looks more and more like it\u2019s just another slush fund for the National Party and their corporate irrigator mates.
\n\u201cThese scandals aren\u2019t going to go away and the more we find out the worse the story gets. The LNP\u2019s management of the MDB has been woeful from the beginning.
\n\u201cWe need a Royal Commission to get to the bottom of these scandals and I urge all sides of politics to back my bill to establish one.
\n\u201cCorporate greed and the climate emergency have pushed our biggest river system into drought which is having devastating impacts on river communities and the environment. Getting to the bottom of what\u2019s gone so wrong for the MDB is the least we can do right now to give such a precious water resource a chance of survival.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Australia Institute\u00a0analysis\u00a0released today showing the Federal Government paid exorbitant prices for water rights to a company linked to Minister Angus Taylor is further evidence of the need for a Royal Commission into the Murray-Darling Basin Plan, the Greens say. In April 2018, Greens Spokesperson for Water Senator Sarah Hanson-Young, referred allegations that the Department … Continue reading “Dodgy water deals done at double the price highlight need for Royal Commission”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4920","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-aussie"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4920","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4920"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4920\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4920"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4920"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4920"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}