Water speculator: Adelaide broker taps his own pool in $200,000 trade

An Adelaide water broker has been caught trying to trade his own entitlements for $200,000 to irrigators.

SA trade: An Adelaide water broker has been caught trying to trade his own entitlements for $200,000 to irrigators.

A SOUTH Australian water broker has been caught out trying to speculate on the Victorian water market, offering $200,000 of Victorian entitlements without disclosing he owns the water.

Adelaide-based broker Bill Koufalas, whose firm Trading Water Australia’s slogan is “Looking after you and your water”, listed 421.7 megalitres of Goulburn 1A low reliability water shares on his website last October, for $500 a megalitre.

A search of the Victorian Water Register showed there is only one 421.7ML parcel of LRW shares on the Goulburn 1A system, owned by Mr Koufalas since May last year.

Yet Trading Water Australia’s website does not mention Mr Koufalas owns it.

The Weekly Times has seen an email trail from a concerned irrigator, in which he asked Mr Koufalas last October: “Do you think the sellers would take a lower price? (And) If so, how much, and what other costs are involved — eg, commission, government fees etc?”

The email trail shows Mr Koufalas allegedly responded with: “The owners are open to reasonable offers. As for costs there is a 1 per cent buyers (sic) premium.”

When contacted by The Weekly Times Mr Koufalas said the “email is not from me”.

“I wouldn’t be asking for any premium. I don’t buy and sell (my) water, except for this parcel.”

But the trade raises concerns that anyone can trade water, without a trust account or restrictions on owning and trading their own water.

Victorian Farmers Federation water council chairman Richard Anderson said he was sick of calling for action from federal and state governments, who did nothing.

“Brokers shouldn’t be allowed to own water,” Mr Anderson said. “If he (Koufalas) was a stock broker he could’ve ended up in jail.”

The Weekly Times has regularly reported on brokers trading water on to and off their own Water Access Licences in NSW, as well as speculators entering the market when volumes are thin and their impact on pricing can be great.

The ACCC’s Agriculture Unit is investigating Murray Darling Basin water markets, with the brief to make recommendations to the Federal Government on enhancing their operation, transparency, regulation, competitiveness and efficiency.

An interim report is due by May 31.