Australia’s competition watchdog says a new independent agency is needed to oversee water trading markets in the Murray-Darling Basin, along with basin-wide laws to prevent market manipulation and insider trading.

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission backs far greater oversight of the multi-billion dollar-a-year water trade in its long-awaited final report into the way markets operate in the basin. The report was ordered by the Morrison government at the height of the drought on the back of farmer complaints about price gouging and water hoarding.