First 46GL buyout: Brokers call for irrigators to sell to federal government

Waterfind has called on irrigators to lodge the volume and price of water they are willing to sell to the federal government.

Waterfind founder Tom Rooney is looking for irrigators wanting to sell their water to the federal government.

Irrigators have been called on to lodge expressions of interest on selling their water entitlements to the federal government, as part of its initial 46 gigalitre buyback scheme.

Adelaide-based brokers Waterfind EoI form was posted on its website last Friday, but when The Weekly Times checked again on Monday it was not visible.

Waterfind’s EoI form stated “place your interest to be part of the anticipated Federal Government buybacks” towards the Murray Darling Basin Plan and asks irrigators to detail the price and volume they are willing to sell.

The EoI was lodged just as Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water, deputy secretary Lyn O’Connell told a Senate Estimates hearing in Canberra last week that her agency would launch “strategic purchases” of 46GL of water.

Dr O’Connell said last month’s ministerial council of water ministers had agreed 46GL of water could be strategically purchased from NSW to bridge the gap on water recovery under the Basin Plan.

The 46GL does not include any shortfall in delivery of another 605GL in sustainable diversion limit adjustment mechanism supply and efficiency projects, which the nation’s top water bureaucrats expect to fall short by anywhere from 161GL to 340GL.

The Department plans to buy:

14GL from Condamine-Balonne irrigators

1.6GL from the Barwon-Darling

9.5GL from the Namoi

5.1GL from the NSW Border Rivers

9.5GL from the Lachlan

10GL from the NSW Murray

4.9GL from the ACT

Waterfind founder Tom Rooney said the EoI had “been created to enable clients, many of which are currently suffering large impacts from the wet weather or floods, with an opportunity to place an offer with enough time and support in their considerations and arrangements”.