GMW bungles water sale: Irrigators short changed on Connections project

GMW was meant to sell 55,000 megalitres of water on behalf of irrigators last season. But its bungling has cost irrigators dearly.

Irrigators and governments invested in the GMW Connections project to share in saving 429 gigalitres of water.

Goulburn Murray Water corporation bungling has meant 40,000 megalitres of allocation water it was selling on behalf of irrigators has been sold off cheaply, while revenue from the sale of another 15,000ML was lost.

The government-owned water corporation was responsible for selling the water, which was allocated against irrigators’ share of 77,681ML in entitlements recovered as efficiency savings from the GMW Connections modernisation project, which began in 2008.

About 7000 irrigators were handed a mix of high and low reliability water shares on October 1 last year, based on the volume of delivery shares linked to their land.

But water had already been allocated against the entitlements prior to the October handover, equal to 85 per cent of the Goulburn and 77 per cent of the Murray system entitlements.

At the time GMW stated: “all eligible recipients of the irrigators’ share will also receive the financial proceeds from the sale of water allocation held by the Connections Project against the irrigators’ share (known as the offset accounts), proportionate to their holdings of delivery share on census date (1 October 2021) as a bill credit on their GMW account”.

But GMW customer experience manager Lisa Dudley said “GMW sold approximately 40,000ML of allocation on the market, with a further 15,000ML unable to attract a buyer before the end of the water year.”

The Weekly Times understands it was not the case of being unable to attract a buyer that was the problem, but GMW’s refusal to sell water at prices below those recorded on the Victorian Water register, without understanding it was a week to a fortnight out of date.

Allocation market prices on the Murray were $115/ML in October last year, falling steadily to $95 by December and $65 by April, before hitting $25 in April.

Prices on the Goulburn were sitting at $75 for most of the 2021-22 season, only dropping from $42/ML in April to $23/ML in May.

Ms Dudley said GMW only managed to generate $800,000 on 40,000ML it did sell, equating to an average price of $20/ML.

As for the 15,000ML that remained unsold, Ms Dudley said it had been rolled over and poured into first seasonal determination of 2022-23.

But water industry analysts said socialising the 15,000ML meant it was distributed to all entitlement holders, including the environment, speculators and investment companies, rather than just those who held delivery shares and actually owned the allocation water.

Victorian Farmers Federation water council chairman Andrew Leahy said the whole process needed to be subjected to an independent audit, given he was repeatedly being asked by fellow irrigators if they had got what they were due.