Which countries own Australia’s water? Register reveals top foreign players

A list of foreign water entitlement holders in Australia has been released. We reveal which countries hold how much of the precious resource.

Canada’s pension funds’ investments in almonds and other irrigated crops has led to the nation topping the list of foreign-held water owners in Australia.

CANADA and China top the list of foreign water entitlement holders in Australia, as detailed in the national register released this week.

All up, foreign corporations and individuals own 10.9 per cent or 4299GL of Australia’s 39,383GL in water entitlements, two-thirds of which is used in agriculture.

Just over half the foreign-owned water is held within the Murray Darling Basin, equal to 2234GL or 11.3 per cent of the food bowl’s entitlements.

However foreign operators are likely to hold an even greater proportion of water that is available for irrigation, given the Foreign Investment Review Board’s register fails to exclude environmental water from the total pool of entitlements it counts.

The register also fails to discriminate between the types of entitlement held by foreign corporations and individuals as at June 30 last year, simply counting the total volume, whether it be low reliability supplementary water or high security entitlement.

FOREIGN HELD WATER ENTITLEMENT BY STATE

QUEENSLAND 1305GL, equal to 18.8 per cent of total entitlements on issue

NSW 1335GL, equal to 8.9 per cent of total entitlements

VICTORIA 299GL, equal to 4 per cent of total entitlements

SOUTH AUSTRALIA 266GL, equal to 9.7 per cent of total entitlements

TASMANIA 115, equal to 4.89 per cent of total entitlements

The register does not identify individual foreign firms, however PSP Investments, a Canadian Investment Fund, is likely to be the major contributor to it’s homeland’s dominance, after it bought almost 90GL from Singapore-based global agribusiness Olam in 2019 and secured another 170GL when it bought out Webster Limited last year.

FOREIGN-HELD WATER ENTITLEMENTS BY COUNTRY — TOP 10

Canada 698GL

China 662GL

US 660GL

UK 375GL

France 158GL

Hong Kong 129GL

Netherlands 104GL

Belgium 103GL

Switzerland 103GL

Germany 99GL

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