NSW Environment Minister parks speculators’ water on his account
Speculators and corporate irrigators parked more than $2.5 million of allocation water on NSW Environment Minister Matt Kean’s account.
SOME of the Murray Darling Basin’s largest foreign-owned irrigation corporations and speculators are parking water on NSW Environment Minister Matt Kean’s accounts.
An analysis of trades revealed Canadian-owned Webster Ltd and Aroona Farms, speculator Duxton Water, goFarm’s Cadell Orchard and others have transferred Murray River water on to and off Mr Kean’s Murrumbidgee water access licenses over the past 12 months.
Mr Kean’s WAL 36338 is listed on the NSW Environmental Water Register as a Murrumbidgee Regulated water license that is “wholly committed to the environment at the time of trade”.
The Weekly Times was able to track about 6500 megalitres of water, worth more than $2.5 million, that private corporations transferred on to Mr Kean’s WAL 36338 in the lead-up to June 30.
That same volume was then transferred back again as zero-value trades in July, indicating the Minister was leasing out air space for those wanting to carry over water from 2019-20 into this irrigation season.
But other trades were difficult to track, with three parcels totalling 2593 megalitres shifted off Mr Kean’s environmental WAL from October 2019 to February this year as zero-value trades to Webster Ltd, which is owned by the Canadian Public Sector Pension Investment Board.
Another three parcels totalling 873ML were transferred to speculators Duxton Water on July 1 this year, plus 2000ML to the Australian Executors Nominees.
The register also showed another 3000ML was transferred off the minister’s WAL on July 1 to South Australian almond company Aroona Farms, which is owned by the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Fund, as part of a carryover deal.
Carrying over water on the Murrumbidgee instead of the Murray systems, would have saved companies holding water on Mr Kean’s environmental WAL36338 about $30-$40 a megalitre.
In the lead-up to June 30 Murray (below choke) carryover space was available for lease at $60-$70/ML, compared to $30-$40/ML on the Murrumbidgee.
Irrigators have raised questions about the transparency and openness of the Minister’s dealings in leasing air space on his environmental entitlements to some of the nation’s biggest corporate players.
“Is there a process where it’s open to all or is it just for a privileged few?” Victorian Farmers Federation water council chair Richard Anderson said. “Does it go to tender?”
Mr Kean referred The Weekly Times to his departmental staff, who said the Government “trades in the same way as other water users in a ‘blind market’ through broker networks and online platforms.
“In 2019-20, the Department contracted as a service to other licence holders in the Murrumbidgee regulated river the carryover of a total 9373ML of allocation for total revenue of approximately $300,000.”
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